Day 4: Eat The Frog

So.

Procrastination.

Everybody’s favorite topic (definitely one of mine)

I only have one question for ya:

Have you ever felt like shit because you weren’t productive?

Ever felt nervous?

Anxious?

Like you wanted to run away from your own consciousness simply because you couldn’t stand your own guilty thoughts?

Guarantee everybody has felt this way before.

I certainly know I have

(and a lot of my clients have as well)

Imagine this:

• writing down all your goals

• determining all your priorities

• even identifying the lever-moving tasks you have to do-

but still not being able to get yourself to start working in the first place.

This is why I’m typing this email right now.

Because this one principle solved the problem ever since I followed it for the first time:

Eating the frog.

After I heard about it?

I never had to deal with severe procrastination on big tasks again.

I didn’t struggle with getting the most important work done.

I didn’t even get “work anxiety” anymore.

And I know this sounds exaggerated, but I genuinely did experience this stuff.

And not surprisingly?

Every client I’ve told to do this experienced the same results.

The principle is (once again) stupidly simple.

Believe me when I say this:

Eating the frog is the most effective way to get yourself to do work.

So what does eating a frog even mean?

Imagine yourself in a top-notch restaurant.

Beautiful environment.

High-quality service.

An 8-course meal is on the way-

but there’s an issue

A frog issue.

To pay for the entire thing, you are challenged to eat a frog.

A whole, possibly alive, fat green amphibian.

You have no other option.

No way out.

When are you going to swallow that frog?

Sensible humans would think about it and determine:

Eat the damn thing ASAP so you can at least enjoy the rest of your time and meals.

Yes, it sucks.

Yes, you wouldn’t want to do it.

But if you don’t do it at the start?

The mere thought of having to eat a frog at the end will stick with you throughout the 8 courses.

You don’t enjoy your time, you get more and more anxious, your palms get sweaty, your heart rate increases and you just want to fuck off to your room at home watching youtube while binge-eating ice cream out of a pot that’s larger than your smoking hot head.

Typical flight response- but you can’t hide forever.

You’re starting to get where this is going.

This feels exactly like how you approach work, doesn’t it?

How you’d flee from your tasks for as long as possible, trying to hide from the pressure they put on you through procrastination and escapism.

The constant feeling of slight shitness throughout the day- when you know you still have more important work to do.

Even though it could be solved so easily.

Simply by eating the frog first thing in the morning.

What that looks like for you:

Doing your hardest work task immediately after waking up, sucking down the thoughts of it being uncomfortable, disciplining yourself to show some grit-

that’s all it takes to beat procrastination.

And it’s the simplest principle in the book.

• It reduces stress

• It reduces anxiety and overthinking

• The morning is when our willpower to do hard stuff is the highest

And most importantly?

Eating the frog ensures you make significant progress toward your goals.

..as long as you do the lever-moving tasks in that time.

Which you’ve learned about in yesterday’s email (the 80/20 rule)

And to smash a last limiting belief of yours:

Yes.

Yes, it's worth getting up earlier to “eat the frog” if you have to.

So before you start making excuses about not being able to do it-

if you currently struggle with procrastination on big, important, even life-changing tasks?

Do yourself a favor and get them done in the morning.

Try it out at least.

Here are your Action Steps:

1. Select a needle-moving task that has to get done

2. Work on it first thing in the morning

Simple, right?

Plan it out.

Set the alarm.

See how you feel.

(shit at first, but trust me it’s so worth it over time)

Tomorrow?

We’ll dig even deeper into how you can spend your time and energy most effectively.

How you should “ideally” structure your entire day.

So thank you for reading.

See you soon,

Henri