In reality, the thought of eating frog legs, or octopus literally makes me
GAG — multiple times.
However, in the past few weeks I have started eating frogs on an almost daily basis.
I constantly struggle with getting certain tasks done. I find myself putting them off day after day, week after week, and sometimes for months on end.
I love my tasks app ToDoist. It makes planning my week in advance a lot easier. I especially love being able to schedule upcoming appointments, events, and renewals so that they pop-up both on my computer screen and on my cell phone.
BUT there are those “nasty” tasks that I consistently ignore and just don’t get done. I am a world class expert at procrastination.
The big list of things I avoid is a constant frustration to me.
One of my favorite ways of avoiding my nasty To Dos is internet surfing. My “excuse” is that I am doing important research.
On the day I have now named FROG day, I ran across Mark Twain’s quote about eating frogs.
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” –Mark Twain
To tell you the truth. I was so discouraged at this point in my day, I was ready to do anything.
Five minutes after reading Mark Twain’s quote I ate a frog.
It was a honking big frog, covered with huge warts.
I was gobsmacked.
So what did I do?
I ate another frog.
It was one of the things on my ToDoist list I had been avoiding it all day. I just started working on the task and methodically went through everything that needed to be done to complete the task. DONE. As simple as that!
In the end I had to ask myself why had I been avoiding this task? Was I imagining it to be something awful? Did I think it was going to be difficult?
Having eaten two frogs in one day, I decided to eat another frog the next day. And this turned into eight frogs in one week.
I remembered reading a book written by Brian Tracy– over 6 years ago. While Brian Tracy talks about the concept of eating frogs his book is filled with other great productivity hacks.
Mos of the articles I’ve read about eating frogs, focus on eating your frog first thing in the morning.. While that may work for YOU (try it) it doesn’t work for me. I have a daily routine that involves replying to customer inquiries the first thing in the day. Then I spend two to 3 hours writing or producing content. For me, writing is never a frog … I just write and almost never avoid it. This is my productivity zone and I guard it carefully.
I also know myself enough to understand that if I had to eat a frog first thing in the morning, I would get absolutely nothing done because I would almost always just NOT eat the frog.. Yep I would do nothing all day. Been there numerous times!
I decided to let my frogs sneak up on me.
In the todoist app, one of the things that you can do is create projects. So I created a FROG PROJECT. The tasks in my frog project can come from anywhere … from my regular workflow or for my project workflows. If I put off ANY task two or three times I now classify it as a FROG.
My ToDoist FROG PROJECT list is a gentle reminder of what needs doing. Right now it is a long list, but I can visibly see it shrinking on a daily basis.
Every evening when I am creating my to-do list for “tomorrow” I choose a frog based on the amount of time I have and put it at the top of my list. Usually by 5 or 6 PM I have consumed my frog … though I will confess to consuming several frogs at midnight. The feeling of sheer relief is amazing … and keeps me going.
Several times I have put my “frog of the day” on the back burner (yet again )… BUT so far I have chosen a different frog from my FROG PROJECT LIST … and did it instead. As far I am concerned … any frog I eat is a good thing, so I am not about to beat myself up over not eating the specific frog I had planned for on my “today” list.
I am absolutely TRILLED. I am finally just doing the tasks that need to be done.
For example, one of the things that I absolutely hate doing is my monthly bookkeeping. Theoretically, the plan is that at the end of the month I will spend a day going through visa and MasterCard and Paypal statements , and tracking all my income and expenses for income tax purposes.
Last year, I was so dysfunctional about this I ended up having to do my entire year at one time. It was awful, and took me over two weeks to complete, in order to avoid tax penalties.
In the month that I have been eating frogs, I have caught up on all of this year’s. bookkeeping. Completing last month’s reconciliations took me less than 2 hours. This next year when I do my year end bookkeeping, it will likely take me less than half a day to organize and send all my data to my accountant…. BUT this will happen ONLY as long as I keep on eating my wart covered humongous frogs once a month.
So if you are prone to :
- putting things off
- procrastinating
- stalling
- sticking your head in the sand
- pretending you will do it tomorrow
TRY EATING A FROG.
Contrary to what Mark Twain and the “experts” say, here is MY take on frog eating …
- You don’t have to eat a frog first thing in the morning.
- You don’t have to eat a frog once a day (though that is something to aim for IF you have a long frog list).
- You could eat a whole pot of frogs in one day and then go out for a hamburger.
- You could schedule frog eating time on your daily or weekly calendar (don’t get carried away with yourself).
When a friend of mine heard about my frog eating experiences, she gave me this small plush frog to encourage me. From time to time Kermit magically appears on the top of my computer screen, reminding me of things to be done. And even though my cat doesn’t have a ToDoist list, he loves this little guy as much as I do.
Melanie
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