Audience: Procrastinators or those who are overbooked.

I have a bullet journal of frogs.  They are jumping over each other, sitting on logs and basically they look rather cute.  Each day I start the day by “Eating” my frog.  I pick the most important or difficult task that I could accomplish that day and do it.  After which I color my frog.  Eating the frog is the concept that was started by Brian Tracy and inspired by Mark Twain.  The concept states that we should do the most difficult or important task first.  

Doing this solves several problems.  

• It helps to stop procrastination; just putting it off.  
• It helps to get us on track for the rest of the day, by building momentum. 
• It helps you focus on your own agenda, and to decide on what’s important.
• It helps you gain daily meaningful progress to your goals.
• It breaks down resistance for doing a task.
• It allows you to break down a larger task into smaller tasks over a few days.
• It allows you to know that any task you don’t want to do has to only be done once per day.
• It makes sure you do your task when you are fresh.  Giving your best self to the harder most important tasks.
• It is simple to implement.
• It is flexible.  You want to plan this the night before and don’t pre-plan more than one day ahead.
• It keeps you focused and motivated.  By planning the night ahead you keep your motivation fresh for the important things.
• Gives you a routine of success every day.

Ways to eat your frog tomorrow:

• Take 10 minutes tonight and write down the top 3 items you need to do to progress toward your goal.  Choose the hardest one and call it your frog.
• Break it into steps if you don’t think you can do it within 1-4 hours.
  (I find that I ideally do best if my Frog only takes about 2 hours of time.)
  (Another good rule is to place a star next to important tasks and estimate how long it will take when you add it to your to-do list.)
• Don’t plan for any day other than tomorrow.  This will allow you to refocus, and keep momentum.  Choose your frog the night before.
• Do it first thing, as soon as you can.

Any day you eat your frog is a win.