How to Eat the Frog and Change Your Leadership Mindset
Raise your hand if your day involves frog-eating! ✋🏻
We all have to eat frogs as we lead ourselves throughout the week. What does it mean to eat the frog first?
This analogy encourages you to get the biggest, most challenging tasks out of the way, at the very start of your workday.
Preferably in the morning.
Mornings are often our best times for work. You're more productive, enjoy fewer distractions, and are typically more alert than afternoons or evenings.
If you adopt the eat the frog leadership mindset, you'll be treated to quite a few rewards.
But do you honestly want to eat that frog?
Why You Really Want to Eat the Frog
Are you consistently plagued with mental noise and other setbacks as you strive to complete your daily tasks?
The "eat the frog concept" is a clever method to outmaneuver our self-defeating mental blocks.
The main element is a “don’t think, just act” attitude. Cut the mental chatter and just eat the frog!
"Eat the Frog" is perfect for anyone who:
Struggles with procrastination.
Feels overwhelmed by their to-do list.
Has trouble deciding what to work on at any given time.
Has a hard time sticking to a productive/ efficient system.
Gets a lot done but isn’t making progress on the important stuff.
Side note: the above struggles may tie into a poor work-life balance which, if you're battling, I spoke about here.
Benefits of the Eat the Frog Mindset
What do you get when you eat the frog?
You may or may not receive a tasty meal — challenging tasks are often quite gratifying once you eat the frog and get into the thick of it — but you do enjoy scientifically proven benefits such as:
Optimization of your brain's peak performance time.
More focused work sessions and less mind splatter from multitasking.
A motivation boost from the completion of your most challenging task of the day.
Think about it.
Would you give yourself a pat on the back for winning at the Olympics? No. You'd probably do a double fist pump and grin away!
Once you eat the frog, you can turn your (decreased) attention and energy to your more beloved, or less demanding, tasks.
How to Adopt and Retain an "Eat The Frog" Mindset
There are two main steps to enhance your leader within and begin eating the frog.
1. First, know your frogs.
Don't measure a frog by urgency, but rather, by what task will have the greatest impact and move your business or team forward.
If you've been avoiding a specific task — I know you’re thinking about it now — it's probably a frog.
These tasks reflect real, measurable progress, which leads us to our second step.
2. Look at the bigger picture.
Once you start to eat the frog habitually, progress will readily follow. Regular reflection on your growth can push you to continue with the eat the frog leadership plan.
It will also boost confidence in the strength of your personal leadership.
Bahaha - another side note! As I was prepping this blog post (usually a Sunday task for me), I had the Vanwives latest episode on my TV (just one of the YouTube channels I fell down the rabbit hole with during the pandemic - I digress) - and they referred to their unfinished to-do list in their cabin as: DDD - Dilly Dally Disorder 🤣. Brilliant!
Here's a quick recap on the eat the frog personal leadership philosophy.
It’s all about that task you’ve been avoiding. Get it done! That conversation you’ve been dodging. Book it for tomorrow. That email you’ve been evading. Get it off your plate! Just get it out of the way!
Need more personalized and effective leadership tools to improve your mindset and get sh** done? Shoot me a message and let’s chat!
Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this blog post and I'll see you soon with another one!
Janic 💜
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