Productivity: Eat That Frog!

 

By Candyce Carden

 

 

A writer’s time is a valuable commodity. We have many diverse tasks to perform on the journey to publication, which can be paralyzing if we don’t adopt a workable system. Having a book accepted for publication created a sense of urgency on my part when it came to time management. I would soon have a book to sell!

When I was working to complete my book, I didn’t feel the same urgency. I concentrated on tasks I enjoyed, like writing and creating memes, but dilly-dallied when it came to the tough ones. They were, after all, hard.

Changes were in order.

Increasing Productivity

I recently implemented a system that is greatly increasing my productivity. All I had to do was find my frog, and eat it first.

Eat That Frog!

In his book Eat That Frog! author Brian Tracy writes about procrastination and managing time. For Tracy, a frog is a metaphor for identifying and attacking your most unappealing task first thing in the morning. He asserts that crossing it off the list provides us with a huge psychological boost because we’ve accomplished the worst thing we have to do all day.

I decided to try this method with my “frog.” I needed a couple more endorsements from pastors for my book but had been procrastinating this task for weeks. It was my frog because it’s hard to ask busy pastors to take time out of their day to write a review. I also worried about putting them in the awkward position of having to say no.

These requests take up my time too. Wording them requires much thought, and I wanted to ask humbly and set the right tone. Plus, I had to track down the best way to contact them.

Nevertheless, securing these endorsements was important to my book’s success. I buckled down and completed the task first thing on a Monday morning. It took three hours to write and send the two personalized emails. But once it was done, I felt as light as a feather, and a wave of satisfaction swept over me. Energized, I turned to my more appealing to-dos without the nagging burden of the dreaded chore weighing me down.

Identifying the Frog

What is the frog I need to eat today? The first step is to list goals for the week or day—depending on how you plan. Every list will likely include a couple of goals that are more important than the others. And they are usually the harder ones to do.

Tracy suggests using the ABCDE method to prioritize your goals. It involves assigning a letter to each task, with A being highly important and E being something to skip if necessary.

I employ my own system of adding asterisks to each task. A four **** means it is high priority and a one * means it could be rolled to the following day. This method works better with my brain than the ABCDE.

Eating Frogs is a Discipline

I’m sold. This system is increasing my productivity when I’m disciplined enough to identify my frogs with the mindset of knocking them out first thing. I feel a wave of elation and satisfaction each time I do. The trick is staying disciplined every week and never ignoring my frog, no matter how busy I am.

So every day, find your frog—whether it's adding endnotes or editing several chapters—and cross it off your list first. Every other job will be more enjoyable once you have.

You might find, as I did, that success begets success. Those two requests for endorsements that I put off for too long yielded a positive response from both ministers within an hour. I put the manuscript in the mail to them immediately. And now I wait with fingers crossed for a review while I hunt my next frog.

 

Photo by Jack Hamilton on Unsplash

Candyce Carden is a writer, educator, and nature lover whose teaching experience ranges from preschool to college. She’s written for a variety of magazines, devotionals, and compilations. Her beach devotional, Immersed in God’s Love, releases sometime in 2026.

 

Candyce and her husband divide time between north Georgia and Destin, Fla. The answer may not be at the beach, but should we not at least check? Find more about her at CandyceCarden.com.