{"id":14110,"date":"2019-10-28T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/eat-that-frog-time-management-tips-to-jump-start-your-day\/"},"modified":"2022-09-14T04:38:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T18:38:25","slug":"eat-that-frog-time-management-tips-to-jump-start-your-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/eat-that-frog-time-management-tips-to-jump-start-your-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat That Frog: Time Management Tips to Jump Start Your Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><strong>Eat that Frog! <\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; float: center;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-ap-v2i.applyflow.com\/peopleconnexion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Eat-That-Frog.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>?If it&#8217;s your job to eat a frog, it&#8217;s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it&#8217;s your job to eat two frogs, it&#8217;s best to eat the biggest one first.?<\/p>\n<p>First coined by Mark Twain, this turn of phrase has given rise to the ?Eat that Frog? time management method was developed with this turn of phrase in mind.<\/p>\n<p>The principle is simple: find the task that is most important and will have the most impact on your day, then do it first.<\/p>\n<p>Sounds simple, right?<\/p>\n<p>Like anything, it&#8217;s easier said than done.<\/p>\n<p>The key to nailing this technique ? according to its founder, time-management pro Brain Tracy ? is being able to set clear goals, define the task properly and understand the task in context of your broader goals.<\/p>\n<p>While this method helps you be <em>efficient<\/em>, it&#8217;s up to you to make sure you&#8217;re doing it <em>effectively<\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Pro tip: <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Being efficient is about doing things right.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Being effective is about doing the right things. <\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1><strong>1. Set clear goals<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Here&#8217;s where the tried and tested SMART goals come in! If you find that you&#8217;re no stranger to scope creep, or you spend time turning the wheels but getting nowhere ? it&#8217;s worth trying out the SMART goal method.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; float: center;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-ap-v2i.applyflow.com\/peopleconnexion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Smart-01.jpg\" alt=\"SMART Goals\" \/><\/p>\n<p>SMART goals are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based. By asking just a few short questions of each of your goals, you can make sure you&#8217;re aiming for the right target. The thinking behind SMART goals is that if you can tick off the checklist below (ie: if your goal passes muster), you&#8217;ve given yourself a solid foundation to work towards and are going to be more likely to achieve it.<\/p>\n<p>Specific ? What exactly will you do?<\/p>\n<p>Measurable ? How will you know if you meet your goal?<\/p>\n<p>Attainable ? What steps will you take to reach your goal?<\/p>\n<p>Relevant ? What is it about the goal that is important to you?<\/p>\n<p>Time-based ? When do you plan to complete your goal?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1><strong>2. Define the task properly<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>This links back into the &#8216;s? of SMART goals ? what <em>exactly<\/em> will you do? It helps to break your tasks down into subtasks and prioritise the things you need to handle yourself, and delegate the things you don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example:<\/p>\n<p>Say you&#8217;ve been asked to bake a cake for an office party next Friday.<\/p>\n<p>To do this, you&#8217;re going to need to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pick a type of cake to make<\/li>\n<li>Source the ingredients<\/li>\n<li>Make the cake<\/li>\n<li>Make the icing<\/li>\n<li>Assemble the cake<\/li>\n<li>Bring it to work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; float: center;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-ap-v2i.applyflow.com\/peopleconnexion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Making-Cake-Subtasks-1.png\" alt=\"Baking Cake Subtasks\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Even these small tasks have small components though! For example:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Making the cake:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grease your cake tin with butter<\/li>\n<li>Cut out baking paper and place on the bottom of the tin<\/li>\n<li>Preheat the oven<\/li>\n<li>Measure out your ingredients<\/li>\n<li>Mix dry ingredients together<\/li>\n<li>Cream the butter and sugar<\/li>\n<li>Add eggs to your wet mixture<\/li>\n<li>Slowly add wet ingredients to dry<\/li>\n<li>Mix the batter<\/li>\n<li>Add to cake tin<\/li>\n<li>Put in oven<\/li>\n<li>Test when done<\/li>\n<li>Cool the cake<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When it comes down to it, our weeks and days are often like this ? broken up into small little tasks. If we can learn how to master the little things, we will be able to knock the ?big things? out of the park.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1><strong>3. Understand your goals in context<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>There is an old saying that 20% of your work produces 80% of your results ? and for most of us, this is pretty true.<\/p>\n<p>We might spend the majority of our time on low-energy and low-impact tasks that help us get to our goals slowly, where we should be spending our time on high-impact tasks that help us knock over goals much more quickly.<\/p>\n<p>?Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else.? ? Brain Tracy, Eat That Frog<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; float: center;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-ap-v2i.applyflow.com\/peopleconnexion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Goals-in-Context-1.png\" alt=\"Goals\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When you put your goals in context to identify what is most important ? you are prioritising. You are putting that 20% of your most productive work above all else.<\/p>\n<p>This can be a tricky thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>To help you zero in on your most important work, try asking yourself:<\/p>\n<p>?What will happen if I do this task? What will happen if I don&#8217;t do this task??<\/p>\n<p>The reality is, some things don&#8217;t need to be done <em>right now<\/em> or <em>by you<\/em>, they can be deferred or delegated so you can focus on your most high-impact work.<\/p>\n<p>By understanding the consequences of doing \/ not doing your task, you can understand if it&#8217;s a ?frog?.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Summary &#8211; Eat That Frog <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Eat That Frog is all about finding your most important tasks that have the highest impact (your ?frogs?) and doing (?eating?) them first.<\/p>\n<p>To help you do this, you will need to:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Set SMART goals<\/li>\n<li>Define your tasks properly<\/li>\n<li>Put those tasks in context (of your broader long-term goals)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>For additional career advice, or to learn more about our leadership, team management, coaching and HR capacity building workshops, please head to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/training\">www.peopleconnexion.com\/training<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eat that Frog! ?If it&#8217;s your job to eat a frog, it&#8217;s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it&#8217;s your job to eat two frogs, it&#8217;s best to eat the biggest one first.? First coined by Mark Twain, this turn of phrase has given rise to the ?Eat that Frog? &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/eat-that-frog-time-management-tips-to-jump-start-your-day\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Eat That Frog: Time Management Tips to Jump Start Your Day<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-14110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-advice","tag-both"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18059,"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14110\/revisions\/18059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/18212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peopleconnexion.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}