
It ensures you’re setting your own agendaĪll too often, the first thing we do when we sit down to work is check our email and incoming messages. Is your biggest productivty challenge staying focused? Learn more tips for managing your attention. We’re distracted by so many emails, meetings, chat messages and requests for input that we don’t have the time or space to focus on our highest impact tasks.Įat The Frog requires us to push back against all of those distractions - both external (others interrupting us) and internal (us interrupting ourselves) - and prioritize the actions that will actually bring us closer to our goals. Yet the modern workplace isn’t set up to support that kind of distraction-free “ deep work” (a phrase coined by computer science professor Cal Newport). The most valuable work in today’s knowledge economy is almost invariably work that requires all your mental resources to be focused on one thing - think cognitively demanding tasks like coding, designing, writing, strategizing, and problem-solving. Here's why Eat the Frog should be in everyone's productivity arsenal, even if you already use another method like time blocking or the pomodoro technique: It promotes a deep work habit There’s something about the extreme simplicity and hyper-focus of just one task that I’ve found makes this method particularly effective. But I’d encourage you to try out the most extreme version first.

Agile Results calls for 3 tasks a day, the Ivy Lee method calls for 6. Of course, you can always experiment with the exact number of tasks. For example, Doist’s founder and CEO routinely checks 15-20 tasks off in a day but sets a goal to complete at least one high impact task daily. You’ll still work on other things, but your most important (often your most difficult task that requires the most energy and focus) will be prioritized first before all those other less-important-but-more-urgent things get in the way. It’s not that you’ll kick up your feet and call it a day once you’ve eaten your one frog. If you feel pulled in a million directions and overwhelmed by the number of tasks on your plate each day, I’d argue that this method will be even more powerful for you. I CAN’T POSSIBLY DO JUST ONE THING!”īear with me. While there’s more power and nuance to this method than meets the eye, it all boils down to this: Identify one important task for the day and do it first.Īt this point, you may be thinking “ONE TASK? ARE YOU INSANE? I HAVE DOZENS OF THINGS I HAVE TO GET DONE EVERY DAY. Productivity consultant Brian Tracy named the Eat The Frog method after this vivid piece of advice from Mark Twain. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” Hands should always be washed after touching a frog, and no one should ever kiss a frog.“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. kids less than 5 years of age, the elderly, people with compromised immune systems) should have no contact with frogs – they shouldn’t even be in the same house. While we pay more attention to reptiles as a source of Salmonella, the risk is also present with frogs, and the best thing is to do is assume that all frogs are carrying this potentially harmful bacterium.

There’s not a lot of information regarding what they contracted, whether the illnesses were all clearly linked to frogs, or whether these were truly associated with the movie, but there are certainly disease risks associated with kissing a frog. Various news outlets are reporting that at least 50 children (mainly kids under the age of 10) have become sick in the US after copying the movie’s Princess Tiana by kissing frogs. I assumed that some degree of common sense would apply.
#Kiss that frog movie#
However, when Disney’s The Princess and the Frogwas released, I didn’t really think a lot of people who watched this movie were going to start running around kissing frogs.

I can understand how seeing a cute puppy of some breed might lead to people wanting to get one. The Hollywood effect is quite real when it comes to various trends, including pets ( remember the glut of Dalmatians after 101 Dalmatians?).
