PRODUCTIVITY SPECIAL... Procrastination Sucks — So Here’s The “Eat That Frog” Way to Powerful Productivity PART I

Procrastination Sucks — So Here’s The “Eat That Frog” Way to Powerful Productivity

PART I

Spend Your Most Valuable Time on Your Most Valuable Activities and You’ll Change the Trajectory of your Life.

The problem with programming, along with entrepreneurship and most jobs in tech, is that it requires a lot of mental effort. So no matter how pointless or trivial the task, we still feel productive.

While your brain may be sweating from the sheer challenge of it all, it doesn’t mean that what you’re doing is automatically the best use of your time.

Your best use of time is always going to be adding value. Sometimes that’s code, sometimes not.

If you’re an entrepreneur or single founder, your job is to add value to your customers lives. If you’re employed or want to be, your job is to add value to your company, and the company’s customers.

Nothing in life will move you forward, faster, than consistent prioritization of things that add the most value for others (and for yourself.)

This is what separates the top performers from everyone else, the highest paid from the resentful, the productive and impactful from the overworked.

Don’t be fooled by what you see on social media. The answer is not 18 hour days and 100 hour weeks. 

 You’ll sleep when you’re dead, right?

Well, I like sleeping. And I like clocking into work, getting a lot done, getting paid well for it, and leaving work at work. I like having the free time to write and work on my own stuff.

I’m afforded these “luxuries” (you know, like a work-life balance) because my company trusts me. I’m far from a world-class developer. In fact, I’m a self-taught programmer and I didn’t start coding seriously until my late 20's.

But I’ve built up a track record of getting the stuff done that adds value for other people and the organization. I’ve achieved this through systems and techniques anyone can learn.

We all have a never-ending list of things we have to do.

But they’re only a few key things that provide the most value and contribution, more than the rest of your list combined.

And we all have a few hours each day when our energy levels and circadian rhythm line up and we’re truly engaged (or least, can be truly engaged). The time of day and length will vary, but we all have it in us.

You don’t have to be the best in the world.

But if you’re in the top 10% of developers in your organization or city, or in the top 10% of job candidates, or in the top 10% of freelancers on Upwork, then you’re going to do pretty well.

You’ll know when you’re in the top 10% because the rewards will come to you. The rewards are both internal (fulfillment in your career, free time for family) and external (recognition, promotions, and financial rewards).

Getting More Done in Less Time By Loving to Eat Frogs for Breakfast

Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time is a book by Brian Tracy that is loaded with simple and practical productivity advice.

It’s only about 120 pages but its dense with actionable insights and wisdom. Brian Tracy has been a pillar in the self-improvement field for decades, still going strong at 74 years old.

It’s a little outdated (well, at least my copy published in 2007.)

Blackberries get mentioned a lot, and it can get cheesy and repetitive. Some of it can sound a little old-school and hardline, like an old grandpa yelling clichés at you.

But the main ideas are sound. Most have worked really well for me.

All self-help and productivity advice ultimately boils down to the same thing: A little planning. Prioritization. Taking action on the hard stuff. Procrastinating on the stuff that doesn’t matter. Finishing.

That’s it. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.

What Are Frogs and Why Should I Eat Them?

When you get into the habit of doing your most difficult task before you do anything else, you become a person of action and discipline.

Your identity changes from cog in the wheel to engine that moves the ship forward.

Not just any difficult task. There are a lot of difficult things we can fill our day with. Difficult does not always equate to important or greatest positive impact.

If you’re unsure what that means, the keyword is procrastination.

You’re likely to procrastinate because of fear. Fear is a great sign that this thing you have to do is an important frog.

It can be the fear of failing or looking stupid.

You don’t start the online Computer Science 101 course because you’re scared it’s going to be too complicated to understand.

As a junior developer, you don’t take on projects that are just slightly out of your comfort zone. It’s safer to work on what you already know.

It’s also the fear of success.

What if your career actually takes off and they start giving you more responsibility and money? Who wants that?!

The fear of success is often worse than the fear of failure. It’s insidious because it’s not obvious that people would be scared of achieving more. But the Jonah complex is real and many talented men and women are stopped short of their true excellence because of it.

So we procrastinate on real contribution. We procrastinate on finishing and showing our work.

Instead, we keep busy doing stuff that “should” get done, and the stuff we’re told to do, in order to avoid looking a big, ugly frog in the face.

Separating Big Ugly Frogs from Tadpoles

Tadpoles are helpless babies that aren’t frogs. They’re easy to kill. Killing tadpoles is a mindless activity that doesn’t impress anyone.

Eat the biggest, nastiest frog you’ve ever seen and now you have something to be proud of.

If you’re learning to code, your frog is starting and finishing an online course. Your frog is repeating the modules you don’t understand until you do. Your frog is doing your code camp assignments with focus and intention.

If you want to get hired, then your frog is building things. There is no better way to learn to code and get hired than building stuff, plain and simple.

Your frog is not organizing your bookmarks or polishing your Linkedin profile. Your frog is not posting to forums, Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Facebook groups. These are tadpoles. These things are mindless and easy.

If you want to launch a side project that’s been kicking around in your head for a while, then writing code is your frog. Launching is your frog. Shutting it down after it’s clear that nobody is interested? A big frog.

Your frog is not never-ending market research or reading about how otherpeople launched their side projects. Your frog is most definitely not tweeting about how hard you’re “hustling.”

How to Find Your Highest Value Activities

You may already know what your frogs are, but take some time to do the exercises below. A few minutes of reflection is worth a hundred times more than hours of mindless busy work.

When you realize importance of deciding, starting, and finishing the things that will have the greatest impact on your life, career and organization, then you’re going to do better than 90% of the people out there.

Step 1 — Write Out Everything You Have To Do To Reach Your Goal

Goals and goal-setting have fallen out of favor these days. Instead, we’re all about systems, habits, and daily practice.

I agree because goals can be dangerous. Goals focus on the outcome, which we don’t control.

If you don’t reach your goal, it can make you feel like a complete failure. Or you may end up so obsessed with the outcome that you neglect to do any real work towards achieving it. The term “wantrepreneur” comes to mind.

Systems are better because we have control over our systems. We can measure “success” with a system because every day we either do it or we don’t. Focus is on the daily process, not the eventual outcome.

Frog eating is a system. When you organize the things you have to do in order of impact, plan ahead, and then focus on the most important tasks until they’re done, every day, that’s a system.

But you need some idea where to aim your energy. Without some clarity, all of the effort we put into our systems can go to waste.

Write Your Goal

So let’s pretend goals are cool for a second. Use the present tense with a positive voice. Be specific. You want clarity because vague, general goals aren’t helpful.

Don’t write “Learn to code.” A specific and achievable goal would be “I am an experienced front-end developer who has finished the freeCodeCamp curriculum and built three small side projects for my portfolio.”

“Get a new job” is not a good goal. Instead, “I’m earning 50% more than my current salary, working my dream job at X company.”

List Everything You Need To Do To Achieve That Goal

Write out every single thing, large and small, that would be required to achieve your goal. Add in all of your obligations, the stuff you have to do anyway.

This exercise of listing everything has a few benefits.

First, this gives you a master list. Every new thing that comes your way, or that you think of, should be added to your master list. That doesn’t mean you have to do it. It just means you get it out of your head so you stop worrying about it.

Next, working from a list is also great way to be more productive. (Chapter 2 — Plan Everyday in Advance)

When you have a big list, you can pick off the big frogs and get started immediately. When you start your day without knowing what to work on, it becomes much easier to procrastinate on doing anything at all.

Plus, breaking down the huge, overwhelming tasks into actionable steps is the only way you’re going to get started on them. (Chapter 18 — Slice and Dice the Task)

Lastly, it gives you clarity.

You can “Learn React,” an admirable accomplishment for any budding front-end developer. But if it has nothing to do with your goals at this point in your life, then your time is better spent elsewhere.

Bar Franek  https://medium.freecodecamp.org/procrastination-sucks-so-heres-the-eat-that-frog-way-to-powerful-productivity-543b07ecf360

CONTINUES  IN PART II