I’ve always been a procrastinator, and I still am, and I’m not proud of it. But that’s the way things are. So I’ve been like this for the majority of my life. I used to put off important tasks until the last possible moment. I used to put off my studies and work, only to cry at the last minute, wondering why the world was so difficult.
But that is no longer the case. This new year, I set myself a goal/challenge to improve my life, as I have already lived (or rather, wasted) half of my life. Reading books was one of the steps I took. I brought a variety of books on topics such as attitude, goals, and public speaking. I began reading and applying some of the lessons that resonated with me.
OK coming to this post. Among those books was a book called “Eat that frog” by Brian Tracy. At first, I was not even sure what was so great about this book and because of the title, I was not attracted to this book, but then I read a one line summary of this book and then I realized I should read this book. That one line summary is “If you have to eat two frogs then eat the ugliest one first.”. The ugliest frog is your most important task. The task that will bring the greatest value. The task that you are most likely going to procrastinate on.
Apart from the obvious learnings here I have listed few of my other tips and methods from this book that I found to have great impact on my life There are a total of 21 ways to stop procrastinating I have listed below the top 5 according to me.
Plan your day in advance
The key to making your day a success begins the day before. Whatever you want to accomplish tomorrow, plan it tonight, write it down, and make a to-do list of the most important tasks you need to complete and how you need to complete them. You will have a plan of action rather than just going with the flow of the day.
Remember 80/20 rule
This is the most well-known rule, also referred to as the Pareto principle. It is stated that 80% of the results are obtained with only 20% of the effort. This rule applies to almost everything, and the figures do not need to be exact. What role does this rule play in terms of productivity? Essentially, you can accomplish 80% of the important work with only 20% of the effort you put in. All you have to do now is figure out what 20 percent of meaningful work you can do that will yield 80 percent of the results.
Focus on key result areas
Recognize your primary responsibilities. Be mindful; if it’s a job, be aware of your responsibilities and why you were hired in the first place. It must be due to some aspect of your skill or quality. Make sure you are working on your areas to provide the best results and that you are not wasting time on unimportant activities. It is very easy to get lost in useless activities and waste time.
One step at a time
Take one step at a time. I agree 100 percent with this. because we humans are not good at multi tasking. But believe me and the book’s author. Simply concentrate on one task at a time and complete it before moving on to the next. There’s another reason for this: when we try to focus on too many big things at once, we become overwhelmed and find it difficult.
Break task in small units
Break down larger, more difficult tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks, just as it says. This is something I’ve experienced firsthand. When I first got a job, whenever a task was assigned to me due to a lack of process, I felt overwhelmed and it seemed very difficult, and let me tell you one thing about difficult tasks: you try to avoid them and procrastinate them. It eventually becomes a source of anxiety and sleepless nights. Now I use this method, in which I break down my large tasks into small subtasks, create a checklist, and then complete each subtask one at a time, and the feeling of completing a task one at a time is wonderful.
