Eat That Frog

Eat That Frog!  See yourself as a work in progress. Dedicate yourself to 
developing the habits of high productivity by practicing them 
repeatedly until they become automatic and easy. 
One of the most powerful phrases you can learn and apply is, “Just 
for today!” Don’t worry about changing yourself for your whole life. 
If it sounds like a good idea, do it “just for today.” 
Say to yourself, “Just for today, I will plan, prepare and start on my 
most difficult task before I do anything else.” You’ll be amazed at the 
difference this makes in your life. 
 
 
 
 
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Chapter 18 - Slice and Dice the Task 
 
“The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we 
repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it 
becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably in thought and act.” 
(Orison Swett Marden 
A major reason for procrastinating on big, important tasks is that 
they appear so large and formidable when you first approach them. 
One technique that you can use to cut a big task down to size is the 
"Salami slice" method of getting work done. 
With this method, you lay out the task in detail and then resolve to 
do just one slice of the job for the time being, like eating a roll of 
salami, one slice at a time. Or like eating one piece of a frog at a time. 
Psychologically, you will find it easier to do a single, small piece of a 
large project than to start on the whole job. 
Often, once you have started and completed a single part of the job, 
you will feel like doing just one more "slice." 
Soon, you will find yourself working through the job one part at a 
time, and before you know it, the job will be completed.
 
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An important point to remember is that you have deep within you an 
"urge to completion" or what is often referred to as a "compulsion to 
closure." 
This means that you actually feel happier and more powerful when 
you start and complete a task of any kind. You satisfy a deep 
subconscious need to bring finality to a job or project. This sense of 
completion or closure motivates you to start into the next task or 
project and then to persist toward final completion. This act of 
completion triggers that release of endorphins in your brain that we 
talked about earlier.
And the bigger the task you start and complete, the better and more 
elated you feel. The bigger the frog you eat, the greater the surge of
personal power and energy you will experience. 
When you start and finish a small piece of a task, you feel motivated 
to start and finish another part, and then another, and so on. Each 
small step forward energizes you. You develop an inner drive that 
motivates you to carry through to completion. This completion gives 
you the great feeling of happiness and satisfaction that accompanies 
any success. 
 
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Another technique you can use to get yourself going is called the 
"Swiss cheese" method of working. You use this technique to get 
yourself into gear by resolving to punch a hole into the task, like a 
hole in a block of Swiss Cheese. 
You Swiss cheese a task when you resolve to work for a specific time 
period on a task. This may be as little as five or ten minutes, after 
which you will stop and do something else. You will just take one 
bite of your frog and then rest, or do something else. 
The power of this method is similar to the salami slice method. Once 
you start working, you develop a sense of forward momentum and a 
feeling of accomplishment. You become energized and excited. You 
feel yourself internally motivated and propelled to keep going until 
the task is complete. 
You should try the "Salami Slice" or the "Swiss cheese" method on 
any task that seems overwhelming when you approach it for the first 
time. You will be amazed at how helpful these techniques are in 
overcoming procrastination.
I have several friends who have become best selling authors by 
simply resolving to write one page, or even one paragraph per day 
until the book was completed. And you can do the same.