Overview
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.”
— Harrington Emerson
The 22 tactics and strategies for performance from Brian Tracy’s 2001 book, Eat That Frog, still resonate — and are even amplified — in a world of AI. The book, as written, provides “22 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time.”
However, while reading this book years ago, I saw the relationships and overlap between the otherwise disjointed chapters emerge to reveal six distinct domains:
- Vision
- Psychology
- Strategy
- Planning
- Focus
- Execution
Reorganized in this way, each chapter evolves from a simple tactic into a brushstroke in a large painting that reveals the path to intention and achievement.
In the spirit of that analogy, consider this a brief primer on achievement — a tool for self-auditing and increasing your performance.
Vision
- Decide exactly what you want: Clarity is essential. Just as an athlete must know the game being played and how to win, so must you. Write out your goals and objectives on paper.
Psychology
- Put pressure on yourself: Imagine that you will leave town for a month. What major tasks must you have completed?
- Motivate yourself into action: Be your own cheerleader. Look for the good in every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic and constructive.
- Take care of yourself: Rest is an essential component of productivity. Reset by taking breaks and recharge by unplugging when on vacation.
Strategy
- Leverage your special talents: Determine exactly what it is that you are very good at doing, or could be very good at, and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very, very well.
- Upgrade your key skills: The more knowledgeable and skilled you become at your key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done.
- Apply the 80/20 rule to everything: 20% of your activities, account for 80% of your results. Focus on the 20%.
- Consider the consequences: Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else.
- The Law of Three: Identify the three things you do in your work that account for 90% of your contribution and focus on getting them done before anything else. You will then have more time for your family and personal life.
- Focus on key result areas: Identify and determine those results that you absolutely, positively have to get to do your job well, and work on them all day long
- Identify your key constraints: Determine the bottlenecks or chokepoints, internally or externally, that set the speed at which you achieve your most important goals and focus on alleviating them.
Planning
- Plan every day in advance: Think on paper. 1 minute spent planning saves 5 to 10 minutes executing. There is a point of diminishing marginal returns, so create a planning checklist to follow.
- Maximize your personal powers: Identify your periods of highest mental and physical energy each day and structure your most important and demanding tasks around these times. Get lots of rest so you can perform at your best.
- Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time where you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks.
- Use the ABCDE Method: Before you begin work on a list of tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so you can be sure of working on your most important activities.
- Practice creative procrastination: Since you can’t do everything, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are of low value so that you have enough time to do the few things that really count.
- Slice and dice the task: Break large, complex tasks down into bite sized pieces and then just do one small part of the task to get started.
- Prepare thoroughly before you begin: have everything you need at hand before you start. Assemble all information, tools, work materials and numbers so that you can get started and keep going
Focus
- Identify and avoid distractions such as technological time sinks and time burglars – Use technology to improve the quality of your communications, but do not allow yourself to become a slave to it. Learn to occasionally turn things off, and leave them off.
- Take it one oil barrel at a time: You can accomplish the biggest and most complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time.
- Single handle every task: Set clear priorities, start immediately on your most important task and then work without stopping until the job is 100% complete. This is key to high performance and maximum personal productivity. This is eating the frog.
Execution
- Develop a sense of urgency: Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks. Become known as a person who does things quickly and well.
