Review of Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy For College Students

How about eating a big, ugly, living frog first  thing in the morning? Well, it doesn’t sound tasty   and you probably object to the animal cruelty.  But there is an interesting idea behind it.

If you   get your most important, your biggest, your most  unpleasant task done first thing in the morning,   everything that comes after will be way easier and  more pleasant. This is what Brian Tracy recommends   in his best-selling book, “Eat that frog!”  And today we’re going to take a look at that.  

Welcome to the Career Base blog. I'm the editor, and today I’ve got another   book review for you. Brian Tracy’s “Eat that  frog!” This is a book about procrastination.   Because several months ago I promised  a reader to write about procrastination,  but I’ve taken quite some time   to do so. Which kind of befits the topic.

But now  finally there is a post about procrastination.   Brian Tracy provides “21 great ways to  stop procrastinating and get more done   in less time”. Those 21 tips are described rather  briefly. The book has about 100 pages in total,   so it’s a rather short book. Brian Tracy has  written a lot of books, more than 80 titles.   However, this is one of his most successful  ones. There is a lot of additional material   available.

There is a workbook, there are cards,  there is a video, there is a special edition   for students. So a lot of additional material  is available. Let’s have a look at the content.   One small hint in advance: Usually, I walk you  through the book in a lot of detail. We looked   at all “7 habits of highly effective people”, we  discussed all ten instincts from “Factfulness”,   but with 21 great ways this would be a bit  excessive. So I will have to summarize a bit.  

The categories I use to summarize the tips are  made up by myself. They are not from the book.   We have 21 great ways. Actually, it’s even 22  because the eating of the frog that’s on the title   isn’t one of the 21 great ways, but  it is described in the introduction.   As I mentioned before, the idea is: If you swallow  a living frog in the morning, you know that this   is probably the worst thing that’s going to happen  to you all day.

Don’t eat a frog, it’s a metaphor!   So the plan is to finish your most important,  your biggest, most unpleasant task right first   thing in the morning, so afterwards you know  everything that is to come after will be easier   and more pleasant. This topic of focusing on  your most important task, on your most important   areas of work, is very important and extensively  discussed in this book.

Out of the 21 great ways,   10 of them deal with focus on your most important  tasks, your most important areas of work. Brian   Tracy mentions the Pareto principle you probably  know. It states that a minor part of your tasks   makes up for a major part of your results.  So of course you should focus on those tasks.   He also discusses priorities, setting priorities  among your tasks, using the ABCDE method which is   pretty much the same as the Eisenhower Matrix.  So this is discussed, as well.

And as I said,   focusing on your most important tasks is a major  aspect of the book. Furthermore, Brian Tracy warns   us about distractions such as emails or cell  phones. He advises us to turn off notifications   and to create large chunks of time where we can  work on our most important tasks undisturbed.  

Another important topic in the book is  self-discipline. This is a bit strange. There is   a positive approach where Brian Tracy  recommends to motivate ourselves and to   be our own cheerleaders. However, there are  other tips where it takes a negative turn,   where he advises us to put pressure on  ourselves and to develop a sense of urgency.   Now, I’m sure there are some people  who would benefit from this advice.  

However, there are also a lot of people  who already put way too much pressure on   themselves and who have way too big  a sense of urgency, to an extent that   threatens their well-being or that might even be   a risk to their health. And for  those people this isn’t good advice.   Another topic in the book is planning and order.  Brian Tracy recommends that we set goals for   ourselves which isn’t an entirely novel idea.  And he recommends to plan every day in advance.  

Again, for sure there are people  who would benefit from this advice.   People who do too little planning and who should  do more. However, there are also people who do   way too much planning, who do extensive,  detailed planning, but who never really   get around to putting their plans into action.  And for those this advice isn’t really helpful.   Another tip deals with order. Brian Tracy  recommends that we prepare thoroughly before   we begin. Which pretty much comes down to cleaning  up our desk and organizing our work area properly   so all of the things we need are  within reach and easily accessible.  

There are a few tips that deal  with personal development,   where Brian Tracy advises us to upgrade our  key skills and to identify our key constraints.   And he also advises us to use technology where  it can support our work and make our work easier.   As I mentioned before, we should be wary of  distractions from emails, from cell phone   notifications, stuff like that. But we shouldn’t  condemn technology in total. We should use   technology to our benefit where it is possible. 

And, finally, there are two tips, two great ways   that deal with splitting up large tasks into  smaller subtasks. One of those is called “Take it   one oil barrel at a time!” It refers to oil  barrels that have been set up in the Sahara   desert to mark the way because the way often gets  overblown with sand so it is barely visible. So   these oil barrels help travelers navigate.  There is always an oil barrel in view so you   just drive towards the next oil barrel and thus,  step by step, you can get through the desert.  

The other great way is called “Slice and dice the  task!” This one refers to the salami metaphor you   probably know. You eat a salami one slice at  a time and in the same way you finish a big,   major task by finishing one smaller sub-task at a  time. Now, at this point you might probably say,   “All right, I get the explanation. However,  in the end, isn’t it exactly the same   tip?” Yeah, it pretty much is. And  this is a general issue with that book.  

Some of those tips, some of those 21  great ways are very similar to one another   and they are basically the same tip described in  different ways. Now, in general this isn’t a bad   thing. Giving different types of explanations,  approaching a topic from different angles, this   is a good and helpful thing. You know, one reader  might not understand the first explanation well,   but the second one might really be  approachable and easy to understand for him.   And for another reader it might just be the other  way around.

So providing different explanations,   different approaches is in general a good  thing. However, if you advertise 21 great ways,   it should really be 21 distinct tips and not  different explanations for similar concepts.   The biggest issue with the book, however,  is that there isn’t much information about   procrastination at all. On the cover it says “stop  procrastinating” in red letters.

However, the book   doesn’t actually provide a lot of advice in that  regard. As an example, let’s take this eating   off the frog advice that’s on the cover. Yeah, I  get that getting the biggest thing, the biggest   task out of the way right in the morning is a good  idea. And there is some motivation in the thought   that after you finished it everything will be  easier and everything will be more pleasant.  

However, if you are a person who is struggling to  get started in the morning to start with any task,   then this idea of starting with the biggest  task, with the most unpleasant task,   this makes things even more difficult. And Brian  Tracy doesn’t really provide a lot of advice of   how Ii could make myself take this big step. He  just says, yeah, “Discipline yourself! See it as   a challenge!” And I don’t know if this is that  helpful to a person who tends to procrastinate.  

So the 21 great ways described  herein are basically tips about   time management and self-management. And in my  eyes those are rather common tips. So the book   is basically a compilation. It is a list of 21  tips, 21 approaches you also find in other books.   And here it’s just compiled into  a kind of best of list.

Now,   this kind of book isn’t very interesting for  me because, as someone who is interested in   soft skills, for me it’s always important  to find the original source, to figure out   who was the person who first presented this idea  and which was the book or the article in which   he or she first presented it. Such a  compilation isn’t that useful for me.   Another problem is that Brian Tracy provides  very little information about his tips.  

As I said, it’s 21 tips and the book has about 100  pages so there are just a few pages dedicated to   each of those great ways. There isn’t a lot of  background information. This is intentional. In   the introduction Brian Tracy clearly says, “I want  to provide these tips in a straightforward way.   I don’t want to give you a lot of background  information and and explanations that would just   make things more complicated.”

However, for  me it’s a good thing to have this background   information, so I miss it in this book. And also,  not having that background information makes the   promises of success that appear frequently at  the end of each of the tips ... Most of the time   there is something like, “This tip alone will make  you way more productive.

This tip will help you a   lot!” And, without any reasons and explanations  given, this seems kind of shallow to me.   And this lack of background information  also makes things rather vague. And I wonder   what kind of reader is this book for and  what kind of person is each of those tips   for? I mentioned two examples before where  a tip can be useful for one kind of person,   but irrelevant or even harmful for another  kind.

And this isn’t discussed in the book   itself in any way. All of those 21 great ways  are presented as being universally applicable   – which they are clearly not. And the book in  general: There isn’t any information what kind of   reader it is directed at. After finishing the book  I’d say it is intended for people who understand   their work as a career, who aim for a higher  salary, a promotion, a better job, who want   to make progress in their  career and to whom their work is   a major and very important aspect of their lives. 

And, personally, I’m not that kind of person.   So I guess the book isn’t really for me. However,  this wasn’t visible to me in any way beforehand.   Finally, one thing I miss  is sources and references.   Brian Tracy mentions in the introduction that  he has read a lot of books, more than 100   books he says, and he has distilled all of that  knowledge into those 21 great ways. He mentions   a few authors by name which are Peter Drucker,  Stephen Covey, Alec Mackenzie, and Alan Lakein.  

However, he doesn’t mention which books of those  people he used and which tips he derived from   them. There are no references to any books at all.  There are just a few references to studies. For   example, in the chapter, in the great way about  distractions due to technology, he mentions that   we look at our phones on average that many times  a day, and we think it’s only half as much, and he   mentions which study he has  gotten those numbers from.   But he doesn’t mention which books he has  derived those 21 great ways from. So that would   have been helpful to me because, as I said,  I’m always looking for the original source.  

So bottom line is: The book might be helpful for  you if you want a book about time management,   self management, and you haven’t read any other  books. Because then those 21 great ways will all   be new to you and you might appreciate having  them compiled into this kind of best of list.   And furthermore, you should prefer a book  that is short, that is very straightforward.   And you should not miss the background information  and explanation, but you should rather appreciate   the fact that those great ways are presented on  a few pages and that you can get through the book   quickly.

Personally, I was kind of disappointed  by the book, especially because it has   so little information about procrastination. And  I really hoped to get more information about that.   So it wasn’t very exciting in that  way. However, as I mentioned, it is   a well-known bestseller and one of the most  successful books by Brian Tracy. So it’s   good to have read it, at least just  to know what kind of book it is   and what is in it. Have you read the book?  How did you like it? Maybe you appreciated it   more than me? Let me know in the comments. 

I’m looking forward to your feedback. Also,   if you enjoyed the article, I would appreciate  a comment. For today I’ll take  my leave. Have a nice day, see you next time!