One of my favorite time management secrets (if it’s really a secret) is the concept of “eating the frog”.
(Some people say “licking the toad”, but I’d be afraid of hallucinating if I did that.)
The concept (promoted by Brian Tracy in his book of the same name) goes like this:
- Identify your biggest, hairiest task – the one that will pay off big time if you get it done. The one that is so big and so important that you’ve been putting it off for ever. The one that’s like a big, ugly frog.
- Put that task at the top of your day’s to-do list and then DO IT first thing in the morning, before you do anything else.
- Don’t stop until you get that task done.
The amazing thing about it is that it sets you up for a happy day, because once you’ve accomplished that horrible, big goal, everything else is a bonus.
And the weird thing is, after you have eaten your frog, you continue working and complete a whole bunch of other items is your to-do list in short order.
You feel like you’re capable of anything.
The thing is, to many people, their newsletter is that frog.
It’s something you know will benefit you in the long term, but you just can’t face doing it.
So you need to start work on your newsletter first thing in the morning. (I eat my frogs before breakfast, while still in my nightwear, sometimes even before cleaning my teeth. Yuck, I know, but it works.)
So…eat that frog, send your newsletter out, start getting response from your clients…and feel great for the rest of the day!