Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Why would you eat a frog? That’s the first question that popped up in my mind when I heard about this book. I was glad to find out this book was just about ways to stop procrastinating. Which is something I tend to do a lot. This book contains 21 helpful tips to stop procrastinating and offer you methods to fix your lazy ways.

This book was a gift from my girlfriend last X-mas. I wanted to start this year off with some good non-fiction books and this one was a fast and easy read, counting only 108 pages, including the summary.

Brian Tracy gives you tips that will help you get a grip on your work and projects. I tried approaching everything in this book as a writer, which also made it harder, because the book contains a couple of chapters that are catered towards more “corporate” business environments. Tips on how to cut useless work, or let someone else who’s lower in the hierarchy do it, because you’re overqualified. All of these things were fairly useless to me as a writer.

What was of great use however, was the way you should start handling your tasks. One of the best things in this book was the test in Chapter 8: Apply the law of three. Here you are asked what the three most important things in your life are in different areas. Work, private, personal, etc. I did this test and immediately felt like my goals were much clearer.

This book suggests that you “think on paper” more. I’m already used to making daily to-do lists, but I was used to making them in the morning, at the start of my day. Brian Tracy says you should do this in the evening before the next day, so you’ll unconsciously work on your to-do list during your sleep. I’ve switched to doing this and it really helps me during the following day. I feel like I have a clearer idea of what I want to achieve and rarely a day goes by when I haven’t finished my To-do lists. The days that I do, there’s usually a very good reason I didn’t finish it.

I think there’s something for everyone in this book. Although I already used some of the methods described. Like the daily To-Do lists. I started adding weekly goals as well, which I usually sit down for on Sunday evenings, or Monday mornings. However, there were some examples in this book that seemed overly simplified. There was a story about a woman who wanted to earn more from her job, so she told her boss about how she could boost her productivity by doing less mundane things and more work she was actually hired for. She ended up being more productive and getting a raise. This all sounded like a little American “Telsell” story. I’m not overly fond of this very American approach to things. I’m more interested in the methods than success stories. I didn’t buy the book to read success stories, I want to know how to achieve my goals efficiently.

Overall this little book is a wonderful tool filled with tons of handy tips for everyone who wants to work more efficiently. I already shared some of my insights I gained from this book on my blog, and I will definitely share more of my thoughts and my own methods that help me during my writing process and doing all of the marketing and blogging.

Final score:

Cover art: 🌟🌟🌟
Paper smell: 🌟🌟🌟
Print/lettering: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Originality: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Information: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

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