If you're one of the millions of people who are constantly overwhelmed by their endless to-do list, then Brian Tracy's best-selling book Eat That Frog! is for you. Tracy shows us how to evaluate our "priorities" and focus on the one thing—the biggest and ugliest frog—that we need to do in order to drive the best results and avoid procrastination.

Here are my 3 Takeaways:

1. Eat your biggest and ugliest frog first

The author's inspiration for the phrase "eat that frog" comes from Mark Twain who said that if in the morning the first thing you do is eat a live frog, then the rest of your day will most probably be much easier since the worst thing had already happened to you.

Following the same philosophy, Tracy suggests to avoid the temptation to start on the easy tasks first. Instead, think of the activities that are most deserving of your precious and limited time. Eat the ugliest and biggest frog or tackle the tasks that will have the most impact on your goals.

He also mentions the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule which states that 80% of outcomes are often driven by only 20% of causes. Applying this to productivity, we should evaluate our actions and devote our energy to the ones that yield majority of profits or benefits.

2. Single-handle every task

Many people these days think of multi-tasking as the ultimate way to be productive, that doing more things will get more done, but recent studies actually show the opposite. Multi-tasking will waste more time since you'll need to refocus your energy and attention several times as you switch from one activity to another.

In contrast, humans are more successful when they implement laser focus and give 100% to a single task, completing it from start to finish. Tracy says it's the real key to high performance and maximum personal productivity.

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3. Upgrade key skills

One way to be even more productive is to improve on your key skill/s. Strive to be better, faster, and more effective so that you can be a master of your craft. Some ways to attain this are to read up in your field daily, listen to audiobooks or podcasts, and attend seminars or workshops.

You'll notice this in any industry. The ones who are continuously learning are the ones who are the most successful and adaptive to change.

3 Takeaways

Since one of the best ways to improve ourselves is to commit to continuous learning, this post is part of the blog mini-series called 3 Takeaways where I discuss three insights from thought-provoking leaders, books, and podcasts.

My purpose initially was to simply read more books, but the learnings were too valuable to keep to myself. My goal has since been to share the vital lessons that will help you be productive and free.