Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in… (original 2001; edição 2007)

There's some good advice in here, but it's both a bit dated and a bit cliched. Still, by virtue of being concise (rather than padded), it's a good book. If it were any longer it would be 3/5. Actually, it really is a 3/5.

There are some good things in here -- that you will ultimately be judged on effectiveness (actually, only true in certain jobs; there are a bunch of jobs where politics and appearance matter more than task completion, and jobs where adequacy in task completion effectiveness, coupled with good optics management, is the ideal), that there's a flywheel effect from success (when you finish something, you get better and more motivated at finishing), etc.

Something which presented largely the same ideas but using some real-world examples (both anecdotes and data) would be a lot stronger. Also, for me, a presentation using analogy or references to tech would make a lot of these concepts clearer -- "context switching" is a known performance cost in computing, and there are strategies to handle it, which the author didn't include. Economics includes the concept of "sunk costs fallacy", and if he referenced it, could have done a better job.

Fundamentally my problem with the book is he says "don't do X" rather than "this is how to do X in the least bad way". A blanket proscription on multitasking is nice, and encouraging single-minded focus on a single task to completion, but to make that work, you have to have either other people enabling you (by buffering interactions with the outside world), or you have to set up systems to, e.g. downconvert phone calls and IMs into email and then handle all of those in a single 30 minute period at the end of the day. There are tips for multitasking like breaking things up by location or time, leaving tasks in states which are easily resumed, etc. ( )

Most of this book can basically be boiled down to "focus on the key activities that you believe provide you the most value." Each chapter tries to look at this goal in a bit of a different light. Some chapters feel really similar to others, but since the book is so terse and to the point this isn't really as big a deal as it is in most other self-development books. Taking an approach of reviewing the chapter concept and then skipping to another section if it doesn't seem promising works well.

Some parts of this book are inconsistent - for example, Chapter 4 says "Many people say that they work better under the pressure of deadlines. Unfortunately, years of research indicate that this is seldom true." but then Chapter 13 encourages you to "Set deadlines and subdeadlines on every task and activity." I don't think this is necessarily a huge issue, because to me the book was mostly about providing new ways of thinking about prioritization. Still, it seems weird to put such diametrically opposed advice into the same volume.

Overall, I'd recommend reading it. I got enough insights that this is worth the ~hour you will spend on it. A few selections that jumped out to me:
* Self-esteem is the reputation you have with yourself.
* zero-based thinking: “If I were not doing this already, knowing what I now know, would I start doing it again today?”
* You'll never catch up on everything that you want to do. You have to accept that lower-priority tasks will likely never get done, if you are doing a good job prioritizing. ( )

This book has a lot of practical advice for getting things done. Even though I knew most of it, I found that reading the book (it's short) was worthwhile just as a source of motivation. It's going to change your life, but it might help. ( )

The title refers to a comment by Mark Twain about being sure that eating a frog first thing is probably the worst thing your day might hold. Tracy plays up that theme throughout: eat the ugliest frog first, eat the frog bite by bite, etc. A little jargony and pop-psychology-infused (a lot of telling yourself things -- over and over: I like myself! Do it now!) but still some valid points about setting goals and priorities and making traction on the things that matter. Unfortunately, this isn't going to help me get 15 years of photos organized or clear through the kid detritus since it is very business-based and though I tried to find some takeaways for my life, they were few and far between. I could see it being effective in an office setting where a person could close a door and get a reasonable amount of flow going without constant interruptions and needs and demands. Very accessible and concrete. ( )

An easy read, a fun read.

1 Set the Table p7
2 Plan Every Day in Advance p13
3 Apply the 80/20 rule to everything p19
4 consider the Consequences p25
5 Practice the ABCDE Method continually p31
6 Focus on Key Results Areas p35
7 Obey the law of Forced Efficiency p41
8 Prepare thoroughly Before you begin p47
9 Do your homework p51
10 Leverage your special talents p57
11 Identify your key constraints
12 Take it one oil barrel at a time
13 Put the Pressure on Yourself p71
14 Maximize Your Personal Powers p75
15 Motivate yourself into action p81
16 Practice creative procrastination
17 Do the most difficult task first
18 Slice and dice the task p93
19 Crate large chunks of time p101
21 Single handle every task p105
Conclusion: Putting it All Together ( )