Here’s a productivity tip for you, especially if you are suffering from procrastination. It involves a little attitude shift and a mind trick, but it can be very effective.

How often do you have a task that seems insurmountable or indigestible? Do you find that you just can’t get started on it? There is a phrase we use around our here, “have you eaten your frog yet?” Frogs are the things that you need to do, but don’t want to do, for whatever reason (for a bit of background see Watch out for the frogs and Frogs, Gnats, Butterflies and Gems).

These things get put off, because they are seen as impossibly hard to swallow. At the start of each day, pick the ugliest one and get working on it, so it doesn’t hang around.

Planning can be a form of procrastination

I used to approach things by carving out half hour slots in my diary, and scheduling various tasks across the day or week. The problem with that approach is that it creates a lot of pressure to perform, and it increases the likelihood of procrastination. Every little distraction and interuption becomes an excuse to put off doing the scheduled thing until later. By mid-afternoon, that hour’s commitment is starting to feel like a mountain to climb. We are aware when we get off-task like this, but it doesn’t help with getting back on track. So what is to be done?

Take a bite of the elephant

I hope that no-one would actually eat an elephant, but it is a common phrase and a strong image (see Chasing Mice and Eating Elephants for one discussion). The way to deal with a monster task is to take it one little piece at a time. Pick the task or project and say “Let me see what I can get done on this in the next hour.” Commit to starting on the task, and working only that task for the next hour. No more, and no less. You might even plan a reward for yourself at the end of the hour. It might be a drink, a walk or a bit of random procrastination of your choice, like a quick bit of web surfing.

Pick the task, and shut out any other distractions. Create focus for yourself. Look at the clock, note the time and set to work. Remember, you aren’t committing to an outcome or an achievement, you are just investing an hour into a task to move things forward.

At the end of the hour, let yourself loose, but first look back at what you have achieved. I guarantee that you will be amazed at the results. Celebrate the achievement. That success creates forward momentum and boosts your productivity, you’ll want to get going on more things.

Amaze yourself and let the pressure off

Note that it isn’t “I must work on this for an hour”. You are not beating yourself up or trying to put yourself under pressure. You are choosing to be creative – “let me see what I can do” – playing a game, having a little race. Say I will do what I can do, and all that will be enough. Set yourself up for success. Anything that you get done is bonus. Rather than “I must do x” which sets you up for failure and is going to trigger fear and stress responses.

Once the frog is gone, it is gone

The one hour approach makes those frogs easier to swallow. If you know the frog eating is only going to last an hour, and you are only going to eat what you can, it is that much less pressured.

The feeling of having that tasks out of the way is a wonderful boost to productivity for the rest of the day. If an hour seems like too much, try the beginners version and go for a very focussed 20 minutes. This technique has worked wonders for me, let me know how it works for you.

Related Articles: Too Much Choice – Too Little Happiness (how choice causes procrastination), Watch out for the frogs! (understanding different types of task) and The Now Habit – Dealing with Procrastination (overview of Neil Fiore’s excellent book).

Related Posts

• Too Much Choice – Too Little Happiness
• The Now Habit – Dealing with Procrastination
• Watch out for the frogs!
• Culture or Technology in Business 2.0
• Broadband Maslow and the Hierarchy of Human Needs

It has been a long while since I wrote my original Watch out for the frogs post (you might want to read that first if you missed it), which was picked up on lifehack.org. It has been fun to see the post translated into more than half a dozen languages, referenced in seminars, and read by thousands of people. Thank you all for some thought provoking comments and emails!

The key point of my frogs/gnats/butterflies/gems model was to assess the next task with two questions:

1. Do you want to do it? The desirability of the task.
2. Do you need to do it? The necessity of the task.

This is not so much about prioritising tasks, it is more about tackling the right things at any given moment. There is a subtle difference between prioritising tasks and tackling them. All too often people have a well prioritised task list, but still use their time to tackle the wrong things. Thinking of a given activity as a gnat, frog, butterfly or gem can help create personal accountability for whats gets tackled.

Why four types of task, two questions? Very simply to embed a reality check at the start of each activity. The necessity of the task is a key filter to apply before carrying it out, but the apparent necessity is always going to be biased by our motivation. Our motivation is driven by the desirability of the task, which is why we need to be aware of it. Have you ever found yourself justifying how important something is, in order to pick on that task and push off another? It is in our nature to justify our preferred choices, almost regardless of the actual logical reasons. Questioning our motivation disarms this habit. At the transition point between activities, as you end one activity and start the next activity is a key moment. Pause to understand the nature of the next task, to ensure it is the right next step. Use the two questions or four types of task:

• GNATS – Things you don’t want to do and don’t need to do.
• FROGS – Things you don’t want to do, but do need to do.
• BUTTERFLIES – Things you do want to do, but don’t need to.
• GEMS – Things you do want to do and do need to do.

Asking the want question helps us to understand our motivation towards the task. If you want to do the task, you need to ask yourself questions:

• But is this the best thing for me to do right now?
• Is there something that I don’t want to do, that I should be doing?

Jumping to an attractive task can actually be a form of procrastination, you just happen to be procrastinating by doing something. Picking up a butterfly instead of eating a frog is not a productive thing to do. Chasing a butterfly does feel fun and is easy. Unfortunately, it leaves that ugly frog sitting there croaking “guilty! guilty!” at you.

By default, people tend to view tasks as Gnats or Gems, in reality they are usually frogs and butterflies. Understanding the nature of tasks in this way clarifies how to approach them and stops the wrong things sneaking through:

Gnats: Is it a gnat or is it a frog in disguise? If it is a gnat, go ahead and brush it off, it is low priority. If it is a frog, then do it, now.

Frogs: Frogs either hide themselves as gnats, or puff themselves up into the ugliest toad you ever did see. The ‘frog’ tasks are never as bad as they seem, after they are done. The longer they are left, the uglier they get. This is procrastination at its worst. Dive in there and at least tackle a piece of the task, if not all of it, as soon as you can.

Butterflies: Butterflies flutter and flap and do their best to look like gems. They aren’t, they are just flights of fancy, and another form of procrastination. Avoid them, other than as a special treat when all the frogs and gems are done.

Gems: Is this a gem or is it a butterfly in disguise? Gems are rare, enjoy them when you find them, they are the core of a well motivated and productive life. By getting rid of the frogs first, gems become more enjoyable. No croaking noises in the background means that you can be free to truly enjoy doing the gem. We are always motivated to push through to the gems, which is why it is so important to put the frogs ahead of them.

Go ahead, subvert the best attempts of your brain to procrastinate. Instead, focus on using your time well, to reduce the frog-induced stress in your life and enjoy a new found productivity.

Name checks to some of those who wrote about the original article, who’s blogs I now read:

• The Simple Productivity blog – it is simple and is about productivity, very neat.
• Daily Plan It – I have been enjoying reading this blog. The Hop to It post has a link to a ‘frog eating form’ from Marcia, which looks like a great way to call out your frogs and ensure that they get eaten.

Related posts:
Watch out for the Frogs, How to Deal with Being Overwhelmed at Work

Related Posts

• No Related Post

Every so often someone says something that makes me go “Hmmm…” I mull it over, I digest it, I internally debate it, I ask others about it; Eventually, it changes my behaviour. This time it was part of a conversation about making decisions in business, and the key phrase, itself passed on from someone else, went something like this: “You can always make a decision, even if you don’t have all of the data yet.”

Decision making is a tricky thing. It is one of the easiest things to procrastinate over, with the standard fallback excuse:- I need to think on it some more, I don’t have enough information yet. It is a fact of life that we rarely have all the information that we might want before we have to make a decision. The Internet age means that there is always one more page that we could check out, just one more avenue of research to pursue. I’ve listened to many business discussions where the difference between two options was less than the margin of error in the figures presented. There may be millions of dollars difference between them, but if the figures (and assumptions) are only accurate to tens of millions, then you are in the business of straining out gnats while swallowing camels. At that point you may as well decide it on the toss of a coin. Even in personal decisions, it can be that way. Many times there is an unknowable thing that completely shifts the balance, so you may as well go with your gut and get on with it.

Making decisions early delivers a myriad of advantages:

• You discover your mistakes sooner. That provides more time to correct them.
• Less time lost in bouncing the decision all the time.
• You, and others, can get used to any changes, and get on with it.
• Making the decision surfaces hidden issues that you need to know about.

The hard decisions wait the longest to be made, but are usually the ones that need making the fastest. If you start down the wrong path sooner, you can correct sooner and be back on the right track sooner. If you don’t make the decision, that time is lost and an unexpected dead-line may remove any chance of rectifying a wrong decision. As new information surfaces, there is usually the option to correct as you go. Decide early to correct early.

Unmade decisions can start to flock. Dave Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity talks about open loops. The thought keeps flashing back in our heads, unresolved. Gradually other decisions pile up, and eventually we become paralysed by the hundreds of decisions that have to be made. Unable to think clearly, we make more mistakes. Making decisions early stops them piling up, leaving a clearer, freer mind. Decide early to decide well.

If the decision creates change, acting early gives others and yourself more time to adjust to the change. It also buys time over which to make the change more gradual, if that is needed. Decide early to have more time.

In Po Bronson’s excellent book “What Should I Do with My Life?” He tells the story of person who wanted to be a doctor. They did all of their research and found that the job was a great match for their skills. It wasn’t until started doing the doctoring that they discovered they didn’t like hanging around sick people all day. Making a decision and acting on it surfaces the hidden assumptions. Many things can only be seen where you get there, you can’t predict or second guess them. Discovering these things sooner, rather than later, gives time to overcome these hidden obstacles. Decide early to discover more.

The important comparison is not “good decision” versus “bad decision”, but more often “decision” versus “no decision”. “No decision” can have serious negative consequences in terms of time lost, stress and constant mental re-processing. Even deciding not to decide until point A is a decision. Sometimes that is all it takes to free things up, but there are many benefits to starting sooner rather than later. What has your experience been with early versus late decisions?

In short, decide earlier. You might make more mistakes, but you’ll make them more quickly with more chance to learn and more chance to correct. It isn’t foolproof, but an early decision is the right decision more often than you might expect and it is a great way to knock procrastination on the head.

Related Posts

• No Related Post

Worry seems to be an everyday part of life in the western world. When I was in Africa I was stunned by the happiness and the lack of worry that I saw in people. Many would seem to be on the very edge of survival, by a western definition, and yet they were more alive than many of the people you might meet in an industrialised town. Less seemed to be more. Barry Schwartz has written an excellent book about the subject, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, and he gave a compelling overview in his talk at TED last year, which can be viewed here: “Paradox of Choice”.

In the western world of abundance, we may just have too much choice. Excessive choices create more space for regret, that is coupled with the rate of change that we live with daily to create worry and uncertainty; we end up wriddled with doubt. Almost everyone I meet is worried about something. What can we do? We can not undo the possibilities that commerce has created, we have openned Pandora’s box, but we can manage our reactions.

The secret to dealing with worry seems to rest in removing uncertainty. Work out the worst that can happen and accept that it could be so. Worry lives in the ‘What ifs?’ – be in the position to say ‘so what?’. Worry can almost always be eliminated by positive action, it is inaction that feeds worry. A worry is usually trying to prompt us to do something, so the best response is to act, rather than to procrastinate. Be specific: What are you worried about? Then seek answers and resolution, rather than just more questions.
The challenge is that today’s world constantly leads us to inaction. Through the Internet, through TV, we are simultaneously presented with more choices, that paralyse us, and pressed into less action, by the time that we loose. We must break the cycle, for the sake of ourselves, and the sake of our world. Why worry?

Related Posts

• No Related Post

I have to confess that I am a bit of a recovering to do list addict. I’m not sure which bit of me is, but I do know that I used to have a to do list with hundreds of items on it. I almost had a sense of pride in the length of my to do list. Crazy in retrospect, but we all have to learn don’t we?

eDragonu’s recent 7 tips to help you procrastinate in a more productive way reminded me of the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of an overly long to do list. But what do you do with a to do list that gets too long?

Imagine the to do list, like the diagram, as a container with inlets and outlets. Most discussion around productivity is usually focussed around the outlets. How can you get more done? Work harder, work faster, work smarter. Getting the thing done is the best way to get something off of the to do list, as long as that thing was the right thing to do. However, procrastination often stops us getting things done, but that is a topic all to itself. As the to do list grows longer and longer, it becomes harder to prioritise what is one there, and there is that creeping sense of being overwhelmed, which feeds any tendency to procrastinate.

There are two phases to recovering from an exploding to do list:

1. Shrink it.
2. Stop it exploding again.

Doing things isn’t the only way to get items off of the to do list, even though it is the best. Things can be deferred and moved into the diary for some point in the future. However, deferring something doesn’t actually remove it from the set of commitments. It is still there, although there is a temporary relief created by the illusion that it can be done later. Spreading things over time is a good way to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed, but it can backfire if too many things are pushed out.

There are other ways to remove items from the to do list. One is to abandon an item. When something appears on the the to do list, it has crossed your ‘commitment line’. We have made a commitment to ourselves or to someone else to do something. If we truly become overloaded, then some of those things have to be pushed back over the commitment line. That involves going back to the person the commitment was made to, apologizing and renegotiating the commitment. What stops us abandoning things? It can create a sense of disappointment and a feeling of failure. However, there are times when abandoning something is the right thing to do. Priorities and goals may have changed, or the task may no longer be attainable, it could be part of planned abandonment.

A cunning way to keep things off of the to do list is to do them straight away. There are pros and cons to this technique, but it is very efficient. By acting straight away, you don’t have to worry about managing the task and procrastination doesn’t have a chance to set in. You just need to be sure that the task really was something that needed doing and the moment wasn’t needed for something else that was time critical.

My most recent realization has been to pay close attention to how do things get onto the to do list in the first place. Be careful what crosses that commitment line. Before taking on a commitment, understand how long your to do list already is. Can you commit to more, or is that going to result in a broken commitment? A commitment is a commitment, be it to yourself or to someone else, and it should only be taken on if you have the resources and the will to complete it. A short to do list gives you flexibility, but it takes discipline to get down to that short to do list.

To do list problems? Then do more and sooner, renegotiate when you have to and don’t over commit yourself!

What works for you?

Related Posts

• Randomness, Virtualisation and Getting Things Done
• How to Deal With Being Overwhelmed at Work 2
• How to Deal with Being Overwhelmed at Work

I’ve been asked what I thought of 43 Things. Since I used it for over a year it seemed good sense to write an account of how it helps with working out what needs doing and doing it. Just in case you were wondering why it is called 43 Things… That is because 43 is about the largest number of things that you can work on at once, apparently. And that is pretty much what the site is about! From the outside, 43 Things is quite hard to figure out, but signing up is quick and easy and once you are in, it all starts to fall into place. Answer the “What do you want to do with your life?” question and you should see a list of things come back. You can now adopt one or more of these as one of your ‘things’. There, you are started. Keep going until you have a reasonably complete list, or 43 Things.

How does 43 Things help? It helps in a number of ways, I’ll focus on two of them. Firstly, it helps you to connect with others that are working on similar things. You can add blog-like entries to track your progress, and can see the entries of others working on the same things. This is great for getting occasional tips and sharing with others on the same journey. Very encouraging, although your milage may very. Secondly, you can see what other things like-minded people are working on. This can provide inspiration for new things to go after.

You can also create your own ‘things’. This is a strength and weakness for 43 Things. There are many subtle variations of the same thing and some of the things are not ‘well formed’ – that is they are across a spectrum of aims, goals, tasks and pure randomness. Choose wisely! It is easy to get distracted or overloaded, just because someone else is doing something, doesn’t make it the best thing to be doing. Some of the ‘things’ are actually a life journey, rather than something you can tick off after a few months. That said, I found it helpful for clarifying my real priorities. You can see which things you are actually making progress on, and which are stalled. Be prepared to be challenged.

Once you have completed a ‘thing’, you are offered the opportunity to continue to help others who want to achieve that thing. For example, if you manage to be ‘a famous rock star’, you can help others do the same. A bit of an extreme example perhaps, but you get the general idea. 43 Things keeps a track of the things you have achieved, for you to reflect back on.

The Robot Co-op (the people behind 43 Things) have done a great job of producing a truly social application, it also gives the advertisers a pretty targeted audience! There are a number of sister sites, such as 43places (I was amazed how many places I have been, but how little of the world I have actually seen) and all consuming, which are worth checking out. The downside of 43 Things is that you can end up surfing and reading for hours, with not much output, which isn’t such a good thing. Big style procrastination. That aside, it is a fantastic tool for looking back on what you have done, which can be quite motivating, and a good source of fun. 43 Things is growing in people and functionality all the time. If you want to connect with people from around the world, and get some inspiration for new goals, I’d recommend it as a great starting point.

Related Posts

• No Related Post

Now, I was going to read a book on procrastination, but I kept putting it off. It would be funny if it wasn’t true! Procrastination is a major issue in modern life, just check out 43things.com where you’ll find there over 14,000 people who are trying to stop procrastinating – a veritable hive of habit breaking inactivity. You are not alone! It is constantly near the top of the list of bad habits that people want to break.

Procrastination isn’t ‘not doing things’, it can be ‘doing the wrong things’ rather than the right things right now. If we are honest, the majority of us procrastinate to some degree or other. However, highly successful people generally don’t. That makes procrastination a prime issue to tackle on many people’s self-improvement journey. I am no exception.

Procrastination is touched upon in so many books, but it is a very hard thing to deal with. A good remedy seems hard to find. So far my favourite book has been The Now Habit: Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-free Play by Neil Fiore, Ph.D.

I had not read one of Neil Fiore’s books before, but “Dealing with the Emotional Side of Cancer” had been recommended to me, so I purchased the Now Habit. Perhaps I was procrastinating?

The Now Habit isn’t perfect as a book or as a system, but nothing is. However, I and many other people have found The Now Habit remarkably helpful. It was written out of Neil’s own struggles and his work with clients.

Here is a brief overview, but there is no substitute for reading the book in full. Hopefully this will provide some encouragement to you, running through the content of the chapters:

Introduction to The Now Habit

Starting with a Maslow quote, the introduction sets out a positive philosophy for dealing with procrastination – The Now Habit. How to move from being a procrastinator, to being a producer.

1. Why we procrastinate.

The warning signs:

• An impossibly long “to do” list and talking to yourself in “have to’s”
• Being unrealistic about time and vague about goals and values
• Feelings of depression, low self-esteem and fear.

Our worst critic is ourselves. We judge ourselves a failure, before we have even started. Procrastination is inherently rewarding – you escape the object of your fear and do something that you ‘want’ to do, rather than something that you ‘have to’. Sometimes the object of the procrastination even goes away, because circumstances change, or because someone else deals with it. Procrastination is a self-reinforcing, vicious circle. It can express resentment, or it can defend against fear of failure or the fear of success. A really helpful productivity quote:

“The drive for success involves setting a goal, making it a high priority, and then investing time and energy towards its achievement.”

2. How we procrastinate

Explaining and understanding how procrastination happens, with the procrastination log. Neil suggests you just carry on procrastinating for a week, but keep a log of how you do it. This is actually a surprisingly hard exercise to do! It is always a good idea to keep track of how you use your time. Those with a background in time-billed professions are good at this, but the rest of us have a bit to learn. Start by creating safety – This is the first step out of procrastination. We naturally avoid doing ‘dangerous things’, the way to get them done is to make them less dangerous. The book gives some powerful illustrations.

3. How to talk to yourself

Avoid counter productive messages:

• “have to’s” send messages of stress. Contrasting the language of the procrastinator with that of the producer: ” “I choose”, “I decide”, “I will”.
• “should’s” are messages of depression. should looses its original meaning and instead focusses on resentment and anger, disappointment. Just like “have to’s” it is out of line with the “choice” of the producer.

The power of choice – moving from resistance to commitment. Start learning how to say no. Five self-statements that distinguish procrastinators from producers, with ways to transform your self-talk:

1. The negative thinking of “I have to.” Becomes “I choose to.”
2. The negative thinking of “I must finish.” Becomes “When can I start?”
3. The negative thinking of “This is so big.” Becomes “I can take one small step.”
4. The negative thinking of “I must be perfect.” Becomes “I can be human.”
5. The negative thinking of “I don’t have time to play.” Becomes “I must take time to play”

4. Guilt-Free Play, Quality Work

Procrastination leads us to put off living, and this is a huge tragedy. Procrastinators and workaholics have much in common. Neil introduces the ideal of the Pull Method of Self-Motivation. A sense of mission is the ultimate in the pull method. We work productively when we can anticipate pleasure, rather than just pressuring ourselves into doing things. Play is important. Guilt-free play leads to quality work. My personal version of this is to play the game of seeing what I can do in a hour.

5. Overcoming Blocks to Action

There are three major blocks to action:

1. The terror of being overwhelmed
2. The fear of failure
3. The fear of finishing.

These are three tools to tackle them:

1. Three-dimensional Thinking, the Reverse Calendar.
2. The work of worrying, worry constructively and have it over with.
3. Persistently starting, just keep on starting.

6. The Unschedule

This powerful concept gets you to look at what you are not going to do and to firmly book in play (leisure, socialising, …), to make it guilt-free. There is lots of comment on this around the blogosphere:

• On DirtSimple.
• and on Jim Gibbon’s blog in a great post on the Top 5 Productivity Tips of 2006.

7. Working in the Flow State

Learning to focus and relax, to work productively. The whole area is a massive topic in its own right, this is a great introduction.

8. Fine-Tuning Your Progress

Plan for setbacks – accept that you will fail sometimes and make a plan to get you back on track, to give you resilience.

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task” – Willian James.

9. The Procrastinator in Your Life

Now you are cured, the book runs through some tips on how to deal with those other procrastinators in your life.

The Now Habit – In closing…

The Now Habit is a fantastic book, well worth reading. We can feel that procrastination protects us from others judging our efforts, or from change, but actually it just holds us back. I think the net net for me is this: The secret to busting procrastination is to understand the truth, the action reality of each situation. Realise when you are procrastinating. Realise why you are procrastinating. Then confront those reasons with the truth of the situation. Also that it is ok to fail, it is ok to be human. It is OK to succeed too. And lastly, that it is OK to have things change. You have a choice, don’t be afraid to use it.

Related Posts

• Watch out for the frogs!
• Too Much Choice – Too Little Happiness
• Why Don’t You See What You Can Do in an Hour?
• Culture or Technology in Business 2.0
• Broadband Maslow and the Hierarchy of Human Needs

Something I keep stumbling across is the idea of eating a frog for breakfast! It really isn’t as bad as it sounds. At home we even have a poster above the breakfast table that is a big picture of a frog with the caption “What’s your frog today?”. Eating frogs is all over the blogosphere:

- On Matt’s Idea Blog, right here (I love reading it).
- Over at 43Folders, here.
- And on the CEO Blog – time leadership.

Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time being a whole book on it, well reviewed on Amazon. All of this is based on an old saying:

“If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long!”

Thankfully there are more than frogs to eat in a day. Understanding the types of things that need to be done results in effective action. Tasks are a multidimensional problem space, but you can start by examining just two key dimensions:

The desirability of the task – do you want to do it? The necessity of the task – do you need to do it?

Placing tasks across each axis gives four quadrants – boy, do I love quadrants – or types task:

1. Things you don’t want to do, and actually don’t need to do.
2. Things you don’t want to do, but actually need to do.
3. Things you want to do and actually need to do.
4. Things you want to do, but actually don’t need to do.

Each has it’s own particular challenges.

1. Things you don’t want to do, and actually don’t need to do.

These are easy, don’t do them! These are ‘Gnats’, don’t get pushed into doing them by others. Squash them, bat them off, just say no! This is usually easy to do, because we are motivated to stay away from them and can see that they don’t need doing. It is generally other people that pressure us to do these things, or we accidentally commit ourselves to them. Remember that a fast ‘no’ is much better than a ‘yes’ that really means ‘no’. It avoids guilt for you and disappointment for the other person.

2. Things you don’t want to do, but actually need to do.

These are the ‘Frogs’. The ugly, distasteful things that need to be done, but tend not to. You aren’t motivated to do them, leaving them victim to procrastination. Frogs need structure around them to ensure that they actually get done. Create the motivation to make them happen, either by transforming them into something desirable or by making them subordinate to a strong habit. Eating your frog at the start of the day is just such a habit, but it is even better. Making sure frogs are the first thing that gets done leaves you free to do the things that you enjoy doing. The habit creates an inherent reward. Either way, give yourself a reward for eating the frogs, otherwise they will just sit there watching you and croaking! “If you have to eat a live frog, it does not pay to sit and look at it for a very long time!”

3. Things you want to do and actually need to do.

These are the ‘Gems’. They always appear more rare than they should be, but they are there. If you’ve eaten your ‘Frogs’, then dig out your gems. Make sure that you are being honest – are they things that really need doing? Or are they…

4. Things you want to do, but actually don’t need to do.

The ‘Butterflies’. You want to do them, because they look like fun. You chase them, because they are pretty. The challenge is that time spent butterfly chasing is time that isn’t being spent doing the things that really need doing. They are a self-justified form of procrastination. Butterflies are pretty, it is easy to see them as gems. Understand that they most certainly are not. They don’t help you with what really needs doing.

I am finding that in quickly identifying the nature of the beast before starting helps in using time effectively and it leads to a shorter to-do list, because things get crossed off.

Get to it!

- Brush-off the gnats quickly, just say no and let them go.
- Eat the biggest and ugliest of the frogs at the start of the day, then it is done.
- Mine the gems and revel in the fun and effectiveness.
- And if you find yourself chasing butterflies, catch yourself and get back to mining those gems or eating that frog.

Have a great day, right after you’ve eaten that frog for breakfast!

Related posts: How to Deal with Being Overwhelmed at Work, Frogs, Gnats, Butterflies and Gems, and Chasing mice and eating elephants.

Related Posts

• The Now Habit – Dealing with Procrastination
• Too Much Choice – Too Little Happiness
• Why Don’t You See What You Can Do in an Hour?
• Culture or Technology in Business 2.0
• Broadband Maslow and the Hierarchy of Human Needs