Eat that frog!

this month's article

Eat your frog!
By Marcia Francois


Eat your frog? By now you’re wondering if I’ve gone stark raving mad! No, I’m not mad.

I first learned of this principle from Brian Tracy.

Your frog is the most important task of the day. It is the one thing which, if done quickly and effectively, will ensure your greatest success.

You see, when most people get to work, they already have some idea of what they have to do for the day. Let me give you a specific example.

Okay, imagine that these are the 5 tasks that await you on a particular day:

1. Read and respond to emails.
2. Phone somebody to resolve a query.
3. Set up a meeting.
4. Compile monthly report.
5. Draft a process email and send out.

Most people would probably do the tasks in this order – 1, 3, 2, 5 and 4.

Why?

Because that’s the easiest way to get through the list. After all, by 10:00 nearly all the items can already be ticked off the list.

But then a “typical day” happens – client phone calls, queries left, right and centre, you’re called into a couple of meetings and before you know it, 4:30 has rolled around and you still haven’t done that monthly report.

Sound familiar?

That’s because you haven’t eaten your frog. Your most important task is still undone.

So let’s change it all around.

What if you walked into the office and did nothing else until your report was done? You’ve eaten your frog. And it’s only 9:00.

You then catch up on emails, and draft the process email to send out. The “typical day” still happens but because the most important tasks are done, you can squeeze setting up the meeting and phoning the other person into the tiny five-minute slots you do find during the course of the day.

You see, it’s what I’ve been teaching my time management clients for years when I tell them to ask themselves, “what’s the most important use of my time right now?”

If you get used to eating the frog first, the rest of your day can only get better. Your most horrible task is over and done with and you can almost…but not quite…relax!

And if you have TWO frogs, then you eat the ugliest one first!

My challenge to you is this – just try it for a week and see how your productivity soars. You know I’m the go-to gal if you want to increase your productivity so I made a worksheet to help you get into the habit. Download it now. Page 1 has Mon - Sun and page 2 only has Mon - Friday.

I can’t wait to hear how it works out for you.

By the way, I thought I ought to practise what I preach. So this month, I did exactly that. I wrote this article a week earlier than I usually do so that it’s done. And I feel great!

© 2007 Marcia Francois

Marcia Francois is a personal life coach who teaches people how to have more time, less stress and increased productivity. Visit http://www.takechargesolutions.org/ for your FREE success pack, articles and helpful tips.

2006 - My year in review

*******************************
THIS MONTH'S ARTICLE
2006 - my year in review

*******************************

Spiritual
This year was probably not the best year I've ever had spiritually but I've realised in my Christian walk that this is a marathon, not a sprint and there are ups and downs. As with everything else in life, you have to keep your eyes on things above and just keep moving.

Business
Looking through my goals for the year, I did a lot better than expected in most areas but not as good as I wanted to in other areas.

I got a bit techno-savvy and set up my website and domain name in March. Continuing the techno streak, I set up three business blogs - take charge of your life, organising tips and the newsletter archives.

I ran 9 workshops - 4 Awesome Relationships, Goal-setting 101, Discover more of yourself, Simplify your life, Health and wellness day, and Spring into Organising.

I also interacted on a one-on-one basis with many clients through coaching and organising.

I also developed an e-course, and several e-books which are now for sale on my site.

And I was featured on Kaya FM as a clutter control expert!

I also learnt lots about marketing this year - I now know that marketing's not a swear word :)

I had two sets of business cards printed - I had the reprint done to direct people to the website to get their free success pack, and also to link to the blog.

Financial
This year, I invested a lot of money in myself.....because I'm worth it. Seriously though, I bought lots of e-courses, e-books, CD's and print books to develop myself and improve my business.

Despite all that, I managed to reach my savings goals with almost no trouble at all. Why is it that this seems to be the easiest goal of all for me to accomplish every year?! I don't think I've become extremely self-disciplined over the years so it might just be that I'm addicted to seeing that savings account grow :)

Health
I lost 4kg on Weigh-Less!!! (this year, my goal is to lose another 3 and get to my goal weight). I changed my gym routine to incorporate some dance classes - originally 3 but then I got bored with belly dancing and now only do hip-hop and salsa. I also went to an Introduction to Nia dance workshop.

I have never eaten this healthily in my life, thanks to Weigh-Less, and am faithfully eating lots of vegetables and fruit on a daily basis.

In 2006, one of my main goals was to create more balance in my life and that, I'm proud to say, I really did. Of course, it's a battle when things get busy. But I have learnt to relax my expectations somewhat (for instance, sometimes I chose to spend a couple of hours reading instead of cleaning, or going to gym instead of working late, etc.).

Marriage
Dion and I had lots of date nights this year and of course, we also participated in the first Relationship Boot Camp I ran, to set off our relationship on the right foot.

We also travelled quite a bit this year. We went to Port Elizabeth for our 11-year anniversary at the end of April, then had our big holiday in Thailand and Malaysia in October/ November, and we ended off the year with another long weekend in Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth early in December. Dion and I met in Grahamstown 14 years ago at Rhodes University so it was really special to go back there.

Ministry
Even though this was a really quiet year, I helped around 15 people discover their passion. I also started a new passion-driven ministry called Success Principles, based on Jack Canfield's book. The new ministry had only a few members but each meeting was so inspiring as individual members shared and encouraged one another.

Social/ friends
We always start off the year very well with socials but then as the year progresses and it gets busy, we somehow don't get to see all our friends as often as we'd like. And the travelling didn't help this year either!

I made lots of lunch dates with my friends - isn't it nice to meet up and just be with your girlfriends? (If you haven't spent time with your friends lately, bring them along to the From Drab to Fab workshop. You will have a wonderful time - I promise!)

However, we ended off the year very well and managed to meet up with 3 sets of friends just in December alone, which was just wonderful.

Personal
One of the major things that affected me this year was blogging. It amazes me to see how people's opinion of blogging differs. Some love it, some hate it, some don't understand it but still hate it :)

You might have noticed that I love blogging! I have made some amazing friends through blogging and the internet this year. I even got the opportunity to meet up with Ali and Ricardo on Christmas Eve.

I attended 4 workshops/ courses this year for my own pleasure/ personal development.
I read a total of 72 books this year (on average, 6 every month) - 52 fiction and 20 non-fiction.

And I also saw some really good movies like The Holiday.

Getting back to techno-savvy, we finally got ourselves a digital camera and MP4 players. AND! I'm typing this on my new laptop - yay! Back to the digital camera... oh my word, are those things nifty or what?! I love that camera and discovered another little addiction - taking pictures of food. I know it's weird but it could have been weirder, right???

So that's it - my year in review. (I'd love to hear more about yours in the comments)