Brian Tracy says time is your most precious resource and you're wasting it. Eat the frog: do your hardest task first, when your mind is sharpest in the morning. Schedule your day by urgency and importance, take 10-15 minute breaks, and stop killing time like it's something you have to spare.
Eat That Frog
10–15 minutes
Time is your most precious resource. Make every minute count. Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and today I want to talk to you about why you need to stop killing time. As I said many times before, skills in organization and time management are essential for your success. Time management is a choice. How you decide to spend your time is very much up to your own discretion. You can increase your productivity and move closer towards your goals just by managing what you are doing and when you are doing it. So why then do people choose to kill time? This is quite literally letting time pass you by instead of taking advantage of it. Killing time is a vicious cycle. What starts as a short break, browsing online can turn into hours wasted. It feeds your lack of action and interrupts your workflow. When you find yourself in one of these situations, scrolling the Internet aimlessly, stop for a second and think about what you aren't accomplishing. The more you procrastinate, the longer it will take for your your task to really get done. Sometimes a task seems so daunting you don't want to get started. You come up with a random thing or things to do, wasting your time instead of knocking this one task out. I've been there too. In my book Eat that Frog, I talk about eating your ugliest frog first. Tackle the hardest thing on your to do list or the thing that is hanging over your head and get it done first. It takes discipline to accomplish the hardest task first, but it is a habit that will increase your levels of performance and productivity. Sometimes you have to ignore how you feel and just get started. Nobody wants to start a difficult task, but successful people put their heads down and just do it. It's also helpful to get your hardest to do out of the way first thing in the morning because this is often when you are most alert. After lunch midday, you'll be less motivated to get started on a tough project. Once that's checked off the list, make a plan for the rest of your day. I recommend listing items in order of urgency or importance. What should you complete today? What things can you put off until later? Even more specifically, what needs to be done before a certain time today. Start with that item first and move down the list until you reach the non urgent list items. Now that you've gotten the ugliest frog out of the way, your list does not seem as difficult to complete. Make sure to set time aside for short mental breaks and I'm referring to 10 or 15 minute time blocks. Scheduling a block of time to relax for a moment is not the same as aimlessly scrolling the Internet when you could be getting something done. Mental breaks are valuable and actually jumpstart your productivity. Choose something that shifts your mind away from what you are working on for a brief moment. I usually do this by stepping away from whatever I'm doing. Close your eyes and be still for a moment. If that's not your style, then recharge by being social for a couple of minutes. Talk to your co workers about something non work related. Just make sure not to interrupt their workflow. When you kill time, you are killing your opportunities to do more and to be more successful. People make the most of each hour of every day, using every moment to their advantage. Learn to get a handle on what is distracting you from accomplishing your tasks each day. Effective time management is a habit that can be learned. It starts with your decision to invest your time into what is most important. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable in teaching you how to stop killing time, share it with your friends or anyone else who might benefit from this information. Before we wrap up, I'd like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers. Time is your most precious resource. Make every minute count now. I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is how will you take advantage of your time today? Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action and take action now. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable in teaching you how to stop killing time, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends and click the button on the screen for a free gift. Thanks again for watching.
