I eat frogs for breakfast…

Not actual frogs of course. “Eat the frog” is a saying coined by motivational speaker Brian Tracy. It means completing difficult, frustrating, or tedious tasks (the frogs) before the ones you’d rather do, getting them over with. Tracy’s best-selling book from 2001, Eat That Frog!, explores this task prioritisation strategy further.

The temptation of course is to start the day with the quick wins, smash out tasks and tick them off. It can feel satisfying to tick off ten things and pat yourself on the back for a productive day. But is there something that has sat on your to-do list that you skim over each day? It’s complicated and will take time and thought to complete. Or perhaps it involves a tricky conversation with someone or is something outside your comfort zone. That’s your frog.

I often start the day thinking about whether there’s something I’ve procrastinated over and then look to see what task of the day requires the most effort and I start with that, while the brain is fresh and I’m feeling energised. It’s equally as satisfying ticking off one chunky task as ten smaller ones.

Sometimes we can be busy fools, running around juggling everything yet achieving not very much and the key to frog eating is prioritisation. Busy does not always equal productive and the business might have a priority that you aren’t getting to. The train of busyness never stops so you can either sit on it riding round and round or step off and change the track. Make a real difference, start and then deliver that complicated project that will make the journey better for all and/or send your profits soaring.

The other thing you can do, is let someone else eat your frogs.

Do you have a Marketing project that you’ve been meaning to get off the ground but not got round to? If it feels impossible for you to step off the train, throw your frog out the window to me. After all, I eat frogs for breakfast 😊