Eat That Frog! Other Books by Brian Tracy Maximum Achievement Advanced Selling Strategies The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Focal Point Victory! Create Your Own Future Goals! TurboStrategy Be a Sales Superstar Hire and Keep the Best People Get Paid More and Promoted Faster Change Your Thinking,Change Your Life Million Dollar Habits Time Power Getting Rich Your Own Way TurboCoach The Psychology of Selling Something for Nothing The Art of Closing the Sale Crunch Point The Way to Wealth Eat That Frog! 21 GreatWaysto Stop Procrastinating and GetMore Done in LessTime Brian Tracy BK BERRETT-KOEHLER PUBLISHERS, INC. San Francisco a BK Life book Eat That Frog! Copyright © 2007 by Brian Tracy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distrib- uted, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior writ- ten permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650 San Francisco, California 94104-2916 Tel: (415) 288-0260, Fax: (415) 362-2512 BK www.bkconnection.com Ordering information for print editions Quantity sales.Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by cor- porations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the Berrett-Koehler address above. Individual sales.Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com Orders for college textbook/course adoption use.Please contact Berrett- Koehler: Tel:(800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626. Orders by U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers.Please contact Ingram Publisher Services, Tel: (800) 509-4887; Fax: (800) 838-1149; E-mail: [email protected]; or visit www.ingram publisherservices.com/Ordering for details about electronic ordering. Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers,Inc. Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available from the Library of Congress. Second Edition Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-422-1 PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-504-4 2007-1 Copyediting and proofreading by PeopleSpeak. Book design and composition by Beverly Butterfield, Girl of the West Productions. Indexing by Rachel Rice. To my remarkable daughter Catherine, an amazing girl with a wonderful mind and an incredible future lying before her This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Introduction:Eat That Frog 1 1 Set the Table 9 2 Plan Every Day in Advance 14 3 Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything 20 4 Consider the Consequences 25 5 Practice Creative Procrastination 33 6 Use the ABCDE Method Continually 37 7 Focus on Key Result Areas 41 8 Apply the Law of Three 47 9 Prepare Thoroughly Before You Begin 56 10 Take It One Oil Barrel at a Time 60 11 Upgrade Your Key Skills 63 12 Leverage Your Special Talents 67 13 Identify Your Key Constraints 70 14 Put the Pressure on Yourself 76 15 Maximize Your Personal Powers 80 16 Motivate Yourself into Action 85 17 Get Out of the Technological Time Sinks 89 18 Slice and Dice the Task 97 19 Create Large Chunks of Time 101 20 Develop a Sense of Urgency 105 21 Single Handle Every Task 109 Conclusion:Putting It All Together 113 Index 119 Learning Resources of Brian Tracy International 123 About the Author 127 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface Thank you for picking up this book. I hope these ideas help you as much as they have helped me and thou- sands of others. In fact, I hope that this book changes your life forever. There is never enough time to do everything you have to do. You are literally swamped with work and per- sonal responsibilities, projects, stacks of magazines to read, and piles of books you intend to get to one of these days—as soon as you get caught up. But the fact is that you are never going to get caught up. You will never get on top of your tasks. You will never get far enough ahead to be able to get to all those books, magazines, and leisure time activities that you dream of. And forget about solving your time management problems by becoming more productive. No matter how many personal productivity techniques you master, there will always be more to do than you can ever ac- complish in the time you have available to you, no mat- ter how much it is. You can get control of your time and your life only by changing the way you think, work, and deal with the never-ending river of responsibilities that flows over you each day. You can get control of your tasks and activities only to the degree that you stop doing some things and start spending more time on the few activities that can really make a difference in your life. ix