Eat That Frog

Chapter 7 – Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency 
 
“Concentration, in its truest, unadulterated form, means the ability to focus 
the mind on one single solitary thing.” (Komar) 
 
This law says that, "There is never enough time to do everything, but 
there is always enough time to do the most important thing." 
Put another way, you cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, 
but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one, and that will be enough, 
at least for the time being. 
When you run out of time and the consequences for non-completion 
of a key task or project can be really serious, you always seem to find 
the time to get it done, often at the very last minute. You start early, 
you stay late and you drive yourself to complete the job rather than 
to face the negative consequences that would follow if you didn't get 
it completed within the time limit. 
Rule: "There will never be enough time to do everything you have to 
do." 
The fact is that the average person today is working at 110% to 130% 
of capacity. And the jobs and responsibilities just keep piling up. 
Everyone has stacks of reading material they still have to go through. 
 
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One study concluded recently that the average executive has 300-400 
hours of reading and projects backlogged at home and at the office. 
What this means is that you will never be caught up. Get that out of 
your mind. All you can hope for is to be on top of your most 
important responsibilities. The others will just have to wait. 
Many people say that they work better under the pressure of 
deadlines. Unfortunately, years of research indicate that this is 
seldom true. 
Under the pressure of deadlines, often self-created through 
procrastination and delay, people suffer greater stress, make more 
mistakes, and have to do redo more tasks, than under any other 
conditions. Often the mistakes that are made when people are 
working under tight deadlines lead to defects and cost overruns that 
lead to substantial financial losses in the long-term. Sometimes the 
job actually takes much longer to complete when people rush to get 
the job done at the last minute and then have to redo it. 
There are three questions that you can use on a regular basis to keep 
yourself focused on getting your most important tasks completed on 
schedule. The first question is "What are my highest value activities?" 
 
 
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Put another way, what are the biggest frogs that you have to eat to 
make the greatest contribution to your organization? To your family? 
To your life in general?
This is one of the most important questions you can ask and answer. 
What are your highest value activities? First, think this through for 
yourself. Then, ask your boss. Ask your coworkers and subordinates. 
Ask your friends and family. Like focusing the lens of a camera, you 
must be crystal clear about your highest value activities before you 
begin work. 
The second question you can ask continually is, "What can I and only I 
do, that if done well, will make a real difference?" 
This question comes from Peter Drucker, the management guru. It is 
one of the best of all questions for achieving personal effectiveness. 
What can you, and only you do, that if done well, can make a real 
difference? 
This is something that only you can do. If you don't do it, it won't be 
done by someone else. But if you do do it, and you do it well, it can 
really make a difference to your life and your career. What is your 
frog in your work? 
 
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Every hour of every day, you can ask yourself this question and there 
will be a specific answer. You job is to be clear about the answer and 
then to start and work on this task before anything else. 
The third question you can ask is "What is the most valuable use of my 
time, right now?" 
What is my biggest frog of all at this moment? 
This is the core question of time management. This is the key to 
overcoming procrastination and becoming a highly productive 
person. Every hour of every day, there is an answer to this question. 
Your job is to ask yourself the question, over and over again, and to 
always be working on the answer to it, whatever it is. 
Do first things first and second things not at all. As Goethe said, "The 
things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter 
least." 
The more accurate your answers to these questions, the easier it will 
be for you to set clear priorities, to overcome procrastination and to 
get started on that one activity that represents the most valuable use 
of your time.