Book Information

Title: Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time (BK Life)* (aff)
Author: Brian Tracy
Rating (of 10): 7
ISBN: 978-1576754221

Book Summary

Eat That Frog! is a book with 21 ways to get over procrastination and into results.

Review

I loved the first part of the book: the introduction gave the three frog sayings that inspired the book’s title:

1. 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.
2. If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest first.
3. If you have to eat a live frog, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.

I adore these sayings. They are to the point, and unusual enough to stick with me. It really does boil down the way to get things done.

When I first read and reviewed this book, it was already dated. First published in 2001, it was on the cusp of the personal productivity movement along with Covey and Allen. And it reflects the times. This time I read the 2017 edition, which had a nice intro tacked on.

So the thing with old productivity books, especially from those right around the century mark, is that technology has changed the landscape so much that most of the books are not fully relevant anymore. That being said, there is still a lot of wisdom to be found in this book.

Advice to put your time and energy into high-value activities that move you toward your goals is first and foremost. These are big ugly frogs that should be eaten first. But in order to do that, you have to distinguish these from the army of not-so-ugly frogs that surround them.

I like the way this book breaks things down into small digestible chunks (not frogs) which are more accessible than some of the other books out there.

Do I agree with the 21 items? Not completely. As a software engineer, and a former project management, I know that the method Tracy uses, of mapping an entire goal out before you begin, doesn’t work well. Using the ABCDE method doesn’t necessarily work when you’re drinking from a firehose. But other things are good to remember: plan your day; apply the 80/20 rule; focus on what is in front of you.

There was one piece that struck me soundly. The chapter on constraints points out that most of what holds us back is in ourselves. If that is true, then this is where the efforts need to be made to remove the sticking points. This is something I will be thinking about in the next few weeks.

All in all, I think this is a book worth reading, both for those new to the productivity sphere, and for those who have been there a while. There is no denying that Tracy’s success is real, and these are the “secrets” he has shared to help us along the road.

If you have ever gotten frustrated with a pre-made planner because you ended up working to fit the planner, rather than the planner fitting you, there is a solution. That solution is Bullet Journaling.

Ryder Carroll, the author of the bullet journal, has taken his simple system and made a coherent book out of it. Not only does he cover the basic methods (available on his website), but he shows how the bullet journal method can be used in a variety of situations.

Daily planning. The bullet journal is a great planning tool. Migrate your tasks from your monthly list or another day. Add your events, both planned and things that happened, and you have a complete picture of the day.

Journal. The bullet journal also acts as a journal. Not only do you put down your tasks and events, but you can also make notes about what happened. Need more space for reflection and long-form journaling? Pick the next empty page.

Can be as simple or fancy as you want. While the author is all about simplicity, he acknowledges that some people want to make their bullet journal an expression of art. While there is nothing wrong with this, the author stresses that it can be very plain and simple. This is a relief to someone who has looked at the fancy spreads and seen no way to achieve it.

Not everything goes in. I found the section on collections – those free form lists and notes about a particular subject – to be enlightening. This is where the author makes the case that not everything should go into the bullet journal. If it isn’t worth tracking and revisiting later, it isn’t worth putting in.

Review is key. Going through once a month during what is called the “migration” allows you to review what happened that month and reflect on it. This in turn allows you to build on your experience and mistakes. Even this is flexible – you can migrate as often as you need to.

I was impressed with this book. Not just because of the information, but because of the engaging style the author used. While planning and such can be a really dry subject, Ryder Carroll presented it in a way that made me eager to read. And this is something that rarely happens with non-fiction for me.

Book Information

Book: The Bullet Journal Method
Author: Ryder Carroll
Publisher: Portfolio
ISBN-13: https://amzn.to/2E20wI5*

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash

Earlier this year, David Allen, along with two co-authors, released a new version of Getting Things Done, and this one was aimed at teens. The differences between the original and teen version are striking, and I believe that the teen version is easier to use, maintain, and understand.

If you have ever tried Getting Things Done (GTD), you have probably struggled with parts of it. Whenever I bring up GTD in a management discussion, I hear the grumblings from having to have all the equipment and time to clear the decks, to not knowing what was up in the clouds when the job was stuck on the runway, to just being frustrated with the amount of overhead necessary to keep up the system. All this has been rectified in the version for teens.

Written By An Educator

The reason I even checked this book out was because of an interview that one of the co-authors gave on a podcast I listen to regularly. He used terms like “learning modalities”. This is a term not commonly used outside of the education community. And when I looked at the book, I found that the third author is an educator with 20 years in the public schools. I could see his hands all over the book, making it approachable no matter what learning style an individual favors.

Usuable Out of the Gate

Anyone who has read the original GTD knows that there is a lot of text to wade through before you get to the point where you can do something. And then, when you do get to that point, you instructed to basically take everything around you and put it into a pile and sort through it. This approach is frustrating to people who don’t have the time to do a complete mindsweep, and need some help getting some breathing room.

GTD for Teens breaks the actions down so that they are usable, without massive action. It explains some theories about how the brain works, goes through real-life examples of how to classify “stuff”, and then you’re on your way.

No 5-10 Year Plan

One of the things I hated about the original GTD book was the emphasis on knowing where you are going to be in 5-10 years. I work in technology, and I have no desire to ever be a manager again. I can’t even fathom what technology might be out there in three years for me to work with, much less what I will be doing in 10! The whole runway analogy just irked me. With the job I do, I would never get past 500 feet. Why fly at all?

In GTD for Teens, they approach this using a pyramid, with the top being “why am I on the planet?”…and then instructions to write down what “seems true to you today.” Instead of setting that level and working toward it, it works from the vague to the specific, without pressuring anyone to lock their thinking and focus onto a level you might not even want in a few years.

Contexts Are Gone

I suspected when I read GTD in 2002, that contexts weren’t really as important as David Allen made them out to be. Again, I worked in technology, and I could see where technology could be used to blur those lines, making it impossible to have clear-cut divisions between work/personal, business phones, email and such.

In GTD for Teens, they convert this to a “spotlight strategy” which talks about the four spotlights: location, time, energy and priority. This is much more flexible than the contexts of old. It allows you to take into account how you would be most effective at the time, rather than making you slog through a list of tasks just because you happened to be in a certain physical location.

The Lab

One of the key concepts in education is you present the material, and then you get the students to engage with it. In my classroom, that meant doing math problems, practicing the skills. This book follows the same patterns: present it, then have them work with it.

GTD for Teens uses the back third of the book as a lab. The sole purpose is to have teens walk through the concepts for themselves. It’s written very much like a science lab manual, explaining why you’re doing it, what to do, and what to look for.

Something You Can Do Right Now

If you have any familiarity with GTD (the original), head over to GTDForTeens.com and look for their download icon. Choose one of the worksheets and try it out. I love the mindsweep for stress.

If you aren’t familiar with GTD, skip the original book and head to the library (or Amazon*) and pick up a copy of Getting Things Done for Teens. It will really help you clarify and systematize your productivity systems.

Book Information

Book: Getting Things Done For Teens*
Author: David Allen, Mike Williams, Mark Wallace
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN-13: 978-0143131939
Reading Time: 4 hours

Tell Your Time is a short and to-the-point book about a different approach to time management. It combines the roles of Covey with the Eisenhower Matrix to help you craft an approach that is flexible and focused.

This book, which is about 30 pages, is kept purposefully short because a book on time management shouldn’t suck up your time. It starts with a look at why most people don’t reach their goals, and moves on to a very specific method of getting he most of your time. Following the steps in this book can help you get clearer about what you are trying to do and how to accomplish this.

Going to Switzerland? Or Siberia?

The book starts out with an analogy. You want to go to Switzerland, but the terminal is a long walk and there are hours to wait. You see that the gate you are at is leaving right now. But it’s not going to Switzerland. You get on anyway, trading your planned trip for something here and now. Most people don’t reach their goals because they trade what they really want for the things right here, right now.

“Our problem is not so much a conscious choice to abandon our goal but an unconscious aversion to waiting and working.”

The Secret of Time Management

This isn’t really a secret, but it is something most people forget to take into account: “If you want to manage your time, the sum total hours of your daily activities should be less than twenty four.”

To which I say, no kidding. But yet I, and everyone else I know, tries to pack more than 24 hours into every day.

The great analogy of this system is looking at time like an envelope budget. You put all your money (or time) into specific envelopes. If you exceed in one envelope, you must either do without or take from another envelope.

She goes on to say “The stress associated with a too-full schedule has little do with time at all; it has everything to do with our choices.”

Making a Schedule

“Are your daily activities moving you toward where you want to be, or are you swept up in the tumult of your to-dos?”

This is a great question, but how do you know where you want to be? To this, Amy takes two staples of the productivity sphere and puts them together in a way I’ve never seen before.

Roles

This part is straight out of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits: determining what roles you play in your life. This can include everything from spouse to working to parent to volunteer and more.

What Do I Want To Be?

At this point, most systems would have you figure out what you want to do in each area you identified. Instead, Amy asks you to identify what you want to be in the areas you identified. And from there you figure out what activities you can do weekly or daily that will help you achieve those qualities.

On the surface this seems like an easy exercise; it would be very easy to write down flippant items for each. However, if you take some time and really look at it, you might find some profound items that would generally not make it onto a task list.

Grid Them

This was unusual. Most of us are familiar with the Eisenhower matrix as a system of priorities for tasks. But Amy takes the grid and instead of urgent/non-urgent and important/unimportant, she uses negotiable/non-negotiable and flexible/inflexible in time.

For example, working hours (for most of us) would be non-negotiable and inflexible, putting the task in quadrant 1. Quadrant 2 becomes the place for non-negotiable and flexible things. These should be where most of your activity lies. This would be things like sleep, and where your role activities should live. Q3 and Q4 are the negotiable items.

I think this way of looking at activities can really help take the wheat fom the chaff.

Plot It

Once you have an idea of what you are doing and the negotiability of the time, you fill out a grid. This can be done in a spreadsheet and lets you have a visual representation of what your time will be allocated to.

I have found doing this grid helps me keep my schedul under control and allows me to have enough time to relax and unwind.

Reading Time

This is a very short book. It took me less than an hour to read, even with taking notes.

What You Can Do Right Now

One of the things that you could do right now is to apply the matrix to your current task list. See if looking at the negotiability/flexibility helps weed out some of your tasks.

Book Information

Book: Tell Your Time*
Author: Amy Lynn Andrews
ASIN: B005F0H7BK

Have you ever set yearly goals and then put off working on them because you had plenty of time left? Did you actually accomplish them? The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months* can help you break through that barrier.

I have set yearly goals for 5 years now. I go through all the effort of envisioning what I want, breaking it down into projects, and putting it into my planner. And then I blissfully ignore everything, in spite of monthly reviews, until it comes to be about August, and I realize that I am not going to get everything done. Talk about a morale killer!

I knew I needed a better way. So I picked up this book.

What This Book Will Do For You

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months* is going to shake up the way you plan and work towards goals.

It compresses the time frame of your goals, eliminating the procrastinating based on the feeling “I have plenty of time.” As the author says, “The barrier standing between you and the life you are capable of living is a lack of consistent execution.” The 12 Week plan will make you consistently work toward your goals.

The book also teaches you how to measure your progress on the goals with two different types of indicators, and it gives you the baseline percentage for success. If you see that you only did 50% of the actions that are required to bring your goal to completion, you know you need to change your execution. As the book author says, “More than 60 percent of the time the breakdown occurs in the execution process, but usually people assume the plan is at fault and change it.”

Book Summary

There are several reasons why we don’t reach our goals. The first is that we don’t take consistent action on them. The second is that we don’t measure how we’re doing.

By shrinking your year to 12 weeks, you end up seeing the end very clearly, and you have to take daily consistent action to hit the goals. There is no room for slack: you can’t ignore a project for 8 weeks and expect to get it done in the 12 week timeframe.

Measuring how you’re doing has you look at concrete things to keep you on track. The system asks you to keep score of how you’re doing. So let’s say you decided you would walk 5 times during the week in support of your losing weight goal. However, you only walked 3 times. This gives you a 60% completion rate, and will not get you to where you want to be.

• “While we plan for the future, we act in the day.” Planning is about where we want to be; action is what we do to get there. The book talks about how to get that smaller plan by shrinking the year to 12 weeks instead of 12 months. It provides examples of how this has changed companies and people.
• “Consistent action on the critical tasks needed to reach your goal is the key to getting what you want in life.” With year-long plan, the temptation is to push things off because there is a perception of having plenty of time to accomplish the goals. This leads to an end-of-the-year scramble. The book shows how to consistently act to move toward the goals.
• “An effective measurement system will have a combination of complementary lead and lag indicators.” It isn’t enough to glance at the performance and make a snap judgement. By determining how to measure your progress through action, you will find your lead and lag indicators. This lets you know how well you’re doing in a concrete number.
• “Accountability is the realization that you always have choice.” We can choose to work toward our goals or not. It is completely up to each of us as individuals. If we choose not to work toward the goal, we have to accept the price of missed goals.

And as a final word: “If you work under the belief that you can eventually get the important things done by first working through the urgent ones, you will likely never get to the strategic stuff.”

A Word Of Caution

I found this book heavy on theory; I also got tired of the tedious lecturing on accountability. I wanted to put these items into action, but this book does not have a quick start section, or for that matter even forms that you can fill out to put this into practice.

It was a worthwhile read, but I found I had to take it to the next step. There will be more about this next week, in the article where I show you how I simplified the system.

Want To Try?

If you want to give the principles of the system a try, you can do so over a week long period. Set a goal with a definite end measurement. Then break the goal down over the seven days, and work on it each of the days. Make sure to write down whether or not you hit your daily action!

Next week I will be talking about how to simplify the system, along with my results from my first 12 week plan.

Reader Information

208 pages, about 4-6 hours to read

Book: The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months*
Author: Brian Moran
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN-13/ASIN: B00CU9P31K

Wednesdays are simplicity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

When you decide to change anything, you have to be aware of what you are moving away from and also to what you are moving. Most of the time when we are trying to change something about ourselves, the knowledge of what we are moving away from is automatic: we see what we want to change as the first step to change.

However, when we are setting out to make ourselves stronger, more resilient, more flexible, more whatever, we may not have an awareness of what we need to stop doing in order to move toward our goals.

The book 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success* is a guidebook on things to avoid if you are trying to up your mental strength and resiliency.

What’s Inside

The book, as you would expect, talks about 13 things mentally strong people don’t do. These are: they don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves; they don’t give away their power; they don’t shy away from change; they don’t focus on things they can’t control; they don’t worry about pleasing everyone; they don’t fear taking calculated risks; they don’t dwell on the past; they don’t make the same mistakes over and over; they don’t resent other people’s success; they don’t give up after the first failure; they don’t fear alone time; they don’t feel the world owes them anything; and they don’t expect immediate results.

Each one is approached with an introductory story, the signs of the issue, the reasons why we might do it, the problems with it, and how to avoid it. Then at the end of each chapter is a “Troubleshooting and Common Traps” section, including “What’s Helpful” and “What’s Not Helpful.”

What Makes This Book Different

What makes this book different, and what I really liked about it, was that it went the extra step. Many books will tell you why, what’s wrong with something and how to avoid it. This book alone includes the extra section of troubleshooting and common traps.

The point of having a to-don’t list is to make you aware of things you shouldn’t do so you can replace them with things you should. Having the extra section at the back makes it much easier to be aware of your behavior and what can be done to mitigate any problems.

My Favorite of the 13

The one that struck me the strongest was “they don’t give away their power”. I struggled with this during the past summer, when my father’s sudden death pulled me back into the orbit of the extended family I walked away from 20 years ago. The criticism and anger over my absence spawned retribution in the form of my being written out of my father’s obituary. Around the same time I found that I could no longer tolerate the constant picking a client was doing at me, and I asked to be removed from the client site at the end of my contract, earning me a reprimand at work with comments that were demoralizing and unwarranted.

I realized that in both situations where I was wanting to be accepted and liked, had cost too high of a price. I had given away my power, and it was time to reclaim it. It was time for me to unhook how I felt about myself from my job, my clients, my employer and my extended family. I realized I had to let go of my anger and resentment, because it was only hurting me. I had to decide what was best for me…regardless of my employer, client or extended family.

I am still working on these issues, and I am using the troubleshooting section of the chapter to help me to do it.

Conclusion

I was very impressed by this book because it gave concrete actions that can be taken, as well as the signposts that allow you to see if you are traveling down the “don’t” path. It is going to be a biannual read for me.

Book Information

Book: 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success*
Author: Amy Morin
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN-13: 0062358294

Disclosure:TLC Book Tours provided me with a free copy of the book enable me to write this review.