Eat That Frog

Eat That Frog! Resolve today to develop a sense of urgency in 
everything you do. Select one area where you have a tendency to 
procrastinate and make a decision to develop the habit of fast action 
in that area. 
When you see an opportunity or a problem, take action immediately. 
When you are given a task or responsibility, do it quickly and report 
back fast. Move rapidly in every important area of your life. You will 
be amazed at how much better you feel, and how much more you get 
done.
 
 
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Chapter 21 - Single Handle Every Task 
 
“And herein lies the secret of true power. Learn, by constant practice, how to 
husband your resources, and concentrate them, at any given moment, upon 
a given point.” (James Allen)
 
Eat that frog! Every bit of planning, prioritizing and organizing 
comes down to this simple concept.
Your ability to select your most important task, to begin it and then to 
concentrate on it single mindedly until it is complete is the key to 
high levels of performance and personal productivity. 
Every great achievement of mankind has been preceded by a long 
period of hard, concentrated work until the job was done. 
Single handling requires that once you begin, you keep working at 
the task, without diversion or distraction, until the job is 100% 
complete. You keep urging yourself onward by repeating the words 
"Back to work!" over and over whenever you are tempted to stop or 
do something else. 
By concentrating single mindedly on your most important task, you 
can reduce the time required to complete it by 50% or more. 
 
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It has been estimated that the tendency to start and stop a task, to 
pick it up, put it down and come back to it can increase the time 
necessary to complete the task by as much as 500%.
Each time you return to the task, you have to familiarize yourself 
with where you were when you stopped and what you still have to 
do. You have to overcome inertia and get yourself going again. You 
have to develop momentum and get into a productive work rhythm. 
But when you prepare thoroughly and then begin, refusing to stop or 
turn aside until the job is done, you develop energy, enthusiasm and 
motivation. You get better and better and more productive. You work 
faster and more effectively.
The truth is that once you have decided on your number one task, 
anything else that you do other than that is a relative waste of time. 
Any other activity is just not as valuable or as important as this job, 
based on your own priorities.
The more you discipline yourself to working non-stop on a single 
task, the more you move down the "Efficiency Curve." You get more 
and more high quality work done in less and less time. 
 
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Each time you stop working however, you break this cycle and move 
back up the curve to where every part of the task is more difficult 
and time consuming. 
Elbert Hubbard defined self discipline as, "The ability to make 
yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you 
feel like it or not." 
In the final analysis, success in any area requires tons of discipline. 
Self-discipline, self-mastery and self-control are the basic building 
blocks of character and high performance. 
Starting a high priority task and persisting with that task until it is 
100% complete is the true test of your character, your willpower and 
your resolve. 
Persistence is actually self-discipline in action. The good news is that 
the more you discipline yourself to persist on a major task, the more 
you like and respect yourself, and the higher is your self-esteem. 
And the more you like and respect yourself, the easier it is for you to 
discipline yourself to persist even more. 
 
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By focusing clearly on your most valuable task and concentrating 
single mindedly until it is 100% complete, you actually shape and 
mold your own character. You become a superior person. 
You become a stronger, more competent, confident and happier 
person. You feel more powerful and productive. 
You eventually feel capable of setting and achieving any goal. You 
become the master of your own destiny. You place yourself on an 
ascending spiral of personal effectiveness on which your future is 
absolutely guaranteed. 
And the key to all of this is for you to determine the most valuable 
and important thing you could possibly do at every single moment 
and then, "Eat That Frog!"