No, I’m not talking about those Honeydukes chocolate frogs you can buy from the Harry Potter Studios – although they are delicious! These are more, shall we say metaphorical frogs, and before you think I’ve gone mad as a box of frogs, I’m going to explain why eating 3 frogs a day is good for your business and can be one of the best things you can do for the success and growth of your business.
Hopefully, some of you might have already heard of the iconic phrase from the book ‘Eat That Frog’ – it’s one of my favourite business books of all time, and it’s one that’s had a pretty big impact on me and how I organise and plan my days. The nuggets of wisdom from this book are the perfect ingredients for a witchy business brew, guaranteed to improve your mood and your productivity.
But why?
Many of us enjoy making plans, such as spending hours on a Sunday evening in our snuggly onesie, writing a never-ending to-do list in our fancy gold foil gilded planners – but fail to tick everything off, which results in feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Similar to registering for a gym membership in the New Year, but struggling to stay consistent and then give up a month later. You see, the common reaction to a redundant list or a big commitment is usually:
- Procrastinate on it until the last minute;
- Start from small and low-value tasks to feel you are still progressing.
Well, today we’re gonna put a stop to your procrastination! Plus there’s free gift towards the bottom of this blog for you that will help you keep on top of eating your biggest and ugliest frogs!
Table of Contents
What is Eating a Frog?
The whole ‘eat a frog’ philosophy comes from Brian Tracey and his amazing book ‘Eat That Frog’. The whole book is based around one idea – that when you look at your to-do list for the day, the thing you’re dreading (or just looking forward to the least) is the thing you do first. That’s it. Although a fun fact I discovered in writing this blog is that Brian Tracy actually got the idea from a Mark Twain quote:
When you put it like that, it makes perfect sense doesn’t it? Rather than have the thing you’re least looking forward to hanging over your head all day, you can be much happier and more productive afterwards. Often the tasks we least like on our to-do list, if actually the tasks that are going to propel our business forward. So we need to stop procrastinating on the smaller stuff and tackle the ‘frogs’ first as they’re always top priority. That’s really all there is to it!
Why Eating 3 Frogs a Day is Good For Your Business
Here’s why Eat That Frog should be in everyone’s productivity toolkit, even if you already use another method like time blocking or the Pomodoro technique.
The ‘Eat That Frog’ method is perfect for anyone who:
- Struggles with procrastination
- Gets a lot done but isn’t making progress on the important stuff
- Has a hard time sticking to a productivity system
- Has trouble deciding what to work on at any given time
- Feels overwhelmed by their to-do list
I also feel the tips from this method can help you with the following…
Focus
I’m a big advocate of looking at how successful people got to be successful, and learning as much as I can from them to apply to my own life and business. And one of the big things I realised from Brian’s book is that successful people don’t try to do everything.
I know that there’s this instinctual desire to cling onto everything in your business as a business owner, but to be truly successful you need to overcome that impulse. Successful people instead learn to focus on the most important tasks – the things that will actively help them achieve their goals, or that really need to happen – and make sure they get done. And for most of them, that means doing things they don’t necessarily want to do or enjoy doing first thing in the morning.
Think Big
I’m definitely someone who can get bogged down in details really easily. But while that’s great for a graphic designer, it’s not a great trait in a business owner. I found I would often focus in on the smaller, more fun tasks in running a business and working with clients, and leave the bigger projects or less fun tasks for ‘later’. Which never really came! Taking on the ‘eat 3 frogs’ approach really make me think about what I needed to do to move my business forward, and helped me focus in on 3 tasks that would help me reach my goals. And my productivity has skyrocketed since I started doing this!
Habit-Forming
Working hard is a habit – there are no two ways about it. It takes discipline and practice to sit down and do the work every day even if you aren’t in the mood. But forming habits is hard. It takes around 2 months of daily repetition for a new behaviour to become automatic, which means you need to have the behaviour in the front of your mind at all times while you’re trying to form the habit.
If you want to increase your productivity, it can be difficult to visualise what that looks like – but eating 3 frogs a day gives you a great place to start. It’s an approach that promotes good working habits, and by the time you’ve been doing it for 2 months, you’ll be doing the most important things first automatically.
SMART Goals
If you’re looking for more long-term reasons you should be having frogs for breakfast, this is the one. Because in order to choose what is the most important thing to do, you need to have a plan. You need to know where you want your business to go and how to get there. Most business owners usually have an idea of this in their heads already, but eating 3 frogs a day forces you to put pen to paper and get a plan together.
That plan includes short and long-term SMART goals, and can achieve more in a given day. There’s also a neat sciencey reason for this too. Ticking things off your to-do list is addicting. It gives you a little boost of dopamine as a reward for doing the thing, and this makes you feel good and encourages you to do it again.
And who doesn’t want to feel good?
How To Eat The Frog
Step 01 – Identify Your Frog(s)
Meaning, your hardest, and most important task(s) of the day – start off with one, but no more than three!
Step 02 – Eat It!
Tackle your most important task(s) in the morning and don’t put it off for later.
Step 03 – Repeat Every Day
You’ll be amazed how quickly small steps taken consistently, add up to big accomplishments.
To help you achieve your big business goals, I wanted to create you a free weekly planner. You can use this either inside your Canva account or print it off at home to help you keep track of your froggy goals. ✨
Don’t worry if you don’t have a Canva account, as you can start your FREE 30-day trial here.
So if you’ve not read ‘Eat That Frog’ yet, I highly recommend you do! I’m a big fan of business reading, and I’m always happy to share my current favourite book finds with you. In fact, here’s a list right here! If you want to chat about how to eat 3 frogs for breakfast, or if talking to a brand alchemist has been on your to-do list for far too long, I’d love to have a chat. Just click here to book your free discovery call with me today.
..
Find out the ways you can work with me or follow for more tips & tricks…✨
Work With Me | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Pinterest
∞
