Eat That Frog & The ABCDE Method

To Eat that Frog, is a time management term that means to do your worst task first. Every morning organize your tasks, and choose the biggest and worst tasks to to do first. 

By doing this you will eliminate the opportunity to push it back through out the day and not complete it. Eating that Frog with help you achieve all of your goals more efficiently and enable you to have better prioritization habits.

Time Management - Five Steps to Lower Stress & Higher Productivity

"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it."
~M. Scott Peck

What exactly does the term Time Management mean? Books have been written, theories studied, and systems developed to help us better manage our precious time, and you may have read about or tried some of these ideas. 

I have not made a new discovery on how to stretch time, or developed a new way to manipulate time. I do believe that time management is simply a matter of making the decision to set priorities and focusing your efforts towards those goals. 

These could be long-term goals, or merely daily priorities. If you decide to commit to the things you want to get done, you will be able to make the time available to do them. Time management is a mindset.

So, stop looking for that time to get this or that done; you will never find it, because it is not lost; you are living it. In order to make better use of the time you have to achieve your goals, and feel more productive, there are a just few basic principles to master.

First, you need to be able to recognize what is important to you, and understand the difference between important and urgent.

Important tasks:
Help us achieve long-term goals, or have other long-term significance.

Urgent tasks:
May need immediate attention to avoid a crisis, but are not necessarily important in the long-term.

Make the following five time management strategies into habits and you will begin to see your productivity increase and the chaos decrease.

1. Set your priorities - Write down your goals, and don't be vague. Be very specific with what you want, when you want it, and the steps you need to take to get there. Break your goal down to manageable chunks, and give yourself specific tasks to achieve each step.

2. Make lists - Limit your daily to-do list to 6 items or less. If you list is too long, you will feel defeated when you are unable to complete it. Prioritize the items on your list and try to devote 80% of your time and energy on the important tasks. Of course, there will be some days that nothing important gets done, because the urgent items dominate.

3. Eliminate distractions - People, phones, clutter, hunger, e-mails, you name it; they can eat up entire workdays. Be aware of what your distractions are and learn to filter them out. Take care of necessary details before you sit down to start a project, and remember the important vs. urgent rule.

4. Schedule time for planning - Develop the habit of planning for tomorrow, the night before. Take a few minutes to clean up your work area, make your to-do list, bringing forward any tasks that did not get completed, and mentally prepare for the next day. Your subconscious will help organize your thoughts while you sleep. To quote Alan Lakein - "Failing to plan is planning to fail."

5. Use some kind of calendar, day planner or PDA - Find a format that suits your work style and make using it a habit.

There is one big time-eater that you must learn to recognize and manage, and that is procrastination, although procrastinating is not always a bad thing. There are many tasks we put off because we are doing something more important, and that is a good thing, usually. It is only when we put things off to do something less important, or to do nothing, that procrastinating becomes a problem. Paul 

Graham says in his essay, Good and Bad Procrastination, "I think the way to "solve" the problem of procrastination is to let delight pull you instead of making a to-do list push you. Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you'll leave the right things undone." He contends that important projects require large blocks of uninterrupted time, when inspiration hits, and that to-do lists and errands will reduce that productive flow.

While Mr. Graham's advice flies in the face of the time management tips I just listed, I do agree with his concept. If you are working effectively on a project that is important to you, the idea of interrupting that work to do less important items on your to-do list, does seem counter productive. Those less important items can always be moved to the next day's list.

It comes back to priorities again. What is important to you? Have a very clear understanding of your priorities, not only for a particular day, but also for the long-term. Create the space and time to achieve your goals, and understand that there is never time enough to do everything, and that is OK.

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Higher Productivity Starting Right Now - 5 Easy Steps

Is that you howling mournfully behind the piles on your desk? Are your to-do's getting  steadily deeper every day?  Here are 5 easy, practical, time management skills that will give you back your life,  quickly eliminate the past due to-do's, and start a stress reduction habit. 

Sound good? OK, let's get started.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: Take just a few minutes right now and list your most urgent projects.  Write them down.  Number the projects in order of importance. In other words, make a plan of attack & put it right where you can see it. Repeat this exercise quickly at the end of every day so there is no doubt what needs top priority tomorrow.

BOOK TIME WITH YOURSELF: Get out your weekly calendar and book an appointment with yourself. Schedule time every day when you will focus on getting through your list of priorities in order of importance. OK, some days may not work, but that is no reason to get discouraged and stop. The farther out you go the more control you will have over your schedule. Pick times when you are most productive. My best thinking and writing time is the first couple of hours in the morning. What is best for you?   Now, guard that time and ask that others leave you alone then too. No calls, no emails, no 'drop-ins', just you and your top priority project getting done.

PUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ON TOP:   As you dive into your work push hard.  In the time you have booked with yourself get all you can do done on the most important (most overdue?) top priority project. That way, even if all you get done today is that one thing it will have been the one that has been causing you the greatest worry.  Keep it on the list until it is done then start on the next #1 project.

DO HARD THINGS FIRST: When you do the hardest things FIRST in your day, it gives your entire life a boost. You will feel more confident, have more energy and you can't help but be more creative and positive. In short you will be your old self! You also will find it is lots easier to tackle the next challenge on your list because you have proven to yourself and others that you can handle the tough stuff.   

STICK TO THE PLAN: Book your own time to get these projects done every day and jealously guard it just as you would if it were time booked with an important client or business partner.   Be cautious of the unexpected things such as looking at jokes on your email or that last minute lunch invite that pops up in the middle of the day to distract you from your plan.  It doesn't mean you can't do them, but make sure the things on the top of your list are done before you let those other things steal both your time and your success.

OK, take a deep breath.  Now make that list and start from this very minute to reduce your stress and reclaim your desk from those nasty piles.

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Time Management

10 Effective Time Management Tips

The seven habits of highly effective people

Dr Stephen Covey is a hugely influential management guru, whose book The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, became a blueprint for personal development when it was published in 1990. The Seven Habits are said by some to be easy to understand but not as easy to apply. Don't let the challenge daunt you: The 'Seven Habits' are a remarkable set of inspirational and aspirational standards for anyone who seeks to live a full, purposeful and good life, and are applicable today more than ever, as the business world becomes more attuned to humanist concepts. Covey's values are full of integrity and humanity, and contrast strongly with the process-based ideologies that characterised management thinking in earlier times.

Stephen Covey, as well as being a renowned writer, speaker, academic and humanist, has also built a huge training and consultancy products and services business - Franklin Covey which has a global reach, and has at one time or another consulted with and provided training services to most of the world's leading corporations.

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People®

habit 1 - be proactive®

This is the ability to control one's environment, rather than have it control you, as is so often the case. Self determination, choice, and the power to decide response to stimulus, conditions and circumstances

habit 2 - begin with the end in mind®

Covey calls this the habit of personal leadership - leading oneself that is, towards what you consider your aims. By developing the habit of concentrating on relevant activities you will build a platform to avoid distractions and become more productive and successful.

habit 3 - put first things first®

Covey calls this the habit of personal management. This is about organising and implementing activities in line with the aims established in habit 2. Covey says that habit 2 is the first, or mental creation; habit 3 is the second, or physical creation. (See the section on time management.)

habit 4 - think win-win®

Covey calls this the habit of interpersonal leadership, necessary because achievements are largely dependent on co-operative efforts with others. He says that win-win is based on the assumption that there is plenty for everyone, and that success follows a co-operative approach more naturally than the confrontation of win-or-lose.

habit 5 - seek first to understand and then to be understood®

One of the great maxims of the modern age. This is Covey's habit of communication, and it's extremely powerful. Covey helps to explain this in his simple analogy 'diagnose before you prescribe'. Simple and effective, and essential for developing and maintaining positive relationships in all aspects of life. (See the associated sections on Empathy, Transactional Analysis, and the Johari Window.)

habit 6 - synergize®

Covey says this is the habit of creative co-operation - the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which implicitly lays down the challenge to see the good and potential in the other person's contribution.

habit 7 - sharpen the saw®

This is the habit of self renewal, says Covey, and it necessarily surrounds all the other habits, enabling and encouraging them to happen and grow. Covey interprets the self into four parts: the spiritual, mental, physical and the social/emotional, which all need feeding and developing.

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits are a simple set of rules for life - inter-related and synergistic, and yet each one powerful and worthy of adopting and following in its own right. For many people, reading Covey's work, or listening to him speak, literally changes their lives. This is powerful stuff indeed and highly recommended.

This 7 Habits summary is just a brief overview - the full work is fascinating, comprehensive, and thoroughly uplifting. Read the book, or listen to the full audio series if you can get hold of it.

In his more recent book 'The 8th Habit', Stephen Covey introduced (logically) an the eighth habit, which deals with personal fulfilment and helping others to achieve fulfilment too, which aligns helpfully with Maslow's notions of 'Self-Actualization' and 'Transcendence' in the Hierarchy of Needs model, and also with the later life-stages in Erikson's Psychosocial Life-Stage Theory. 

The 8th Habit book also focuses on leadership, another distinct aspect of fulfilment through helping others. Time will tell whether the The 8th Habit achieves recognition and reputation close to Covey's classic original 7 Habits work.

N.B. Various phrases on this page are registered trade marks belonging to Stephen Covey.

Stephen Covey's principles are protected intellectual property and feature strongly in the Franklin Covey organization's portfolio of products and services.

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