The concept of “eat that frog” means prioritising the more difficult but more important tasks. There’s an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s probably the worst thing you’ll do all day.

Use ‘eat that frog’ as a metaphor for tackling the most challenging task of your day – the one you are most likely to procrastinate on, but also probably the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life.

This easy-to-read book by Brian Tracy details 21 practical steps that will help you stop procrastinating and get more of the important tasks done – today!

Here are 5 of the strategies from Eat That Frog to help you get better use of your time:

  1. Plan every day in advance

At the end of each day, review what you have to do the next day and write a list of to-dos. If you and your team do this, you’ll see an improvement of productivity of around 10%.

  1. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do

This principle means 20% of what you do gives you 80% of the result. You don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done. Understand what your 20% items are that you should be doing that will get the best results.

  1. Prioritise your list in advance

Prioritise your list of to-dos in advance so you aren’t tempted on the day to seek the easiest tasks to complete first. Set your tasks in order of priority.

  1. Slice and dice big tasks

Often you may have a large task and be put off tackling it, going onto something else. Often this is if you’re not sure where to start. If you have a task like that, make some micro steps. What are the first 3 things you need to do to get the task going?

  1. Eat that frog!

Mark Twain once wrote, “if you start your day off by eating a frog, that’s the worse thing you’re going to do all day.” The premise of the book is to start your day off with the biggest task. It’s the task you’ll be putting off, yet often the one that will get you the most results. If you leave it weighing on your mind, it will make your productivity worse.