HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Thanks for picking up this book. If you’re working through Eat That Frog!—or just living a normal life—you know that there’s simply never enough time to do everything that needs doing. As much as you might keep alive the idea that you’ll eventually get caught up, you won’t. All you can do to get control over your life is change the way you spend your time—shifting it away from some things, and toward others. While you can’t do everything, you can always do something.

This workbook is set up to help you take action. Packed full of prompts for self-reflection and useful organizational tips and tools, its aim is to give you everything you need to think on paper and bring about real improvements in performance. It just might change your life.

Besides exercises that align with the key principles from Eat That Frog!, the workbook periodically includes the example of Shane, a narrative character introduced in the following section, working through her own struggles with procrastination and productivity.

You’ll also find a Digital Resources page in the back of the workbook with a link to free charts and graphs from the chapter exercises. Print them out and use them again and again. You may also use the workbook in conjunction with the Eat That Frog! Video Training Program, which presents each chapter of the Eat That Frog! book and invites you to do the exercises in the workbook before moving on to the next lesson.

Without further ado, take action. Get more done. Eat that frog! 

INTRODUCTION: MEET SHANE

Like many people, Shane finds herself at a crossroads in her professional life. She’s a middle manager at a reputable firm and likes her job well enough. She has good healthcare, enjoys her coworkers, and makes enough money to pay her bills, take the occasional vacation, and save a little on the side. But pushing papers isn’t her real passion—chocolate is. For years, she’s been concocting confections in her home kitchen, tweaking recipes and testing them out on an all-too-willing focus group of family and friends. Recently, she decided to take her treats to the masses—or at least to the weekend farmer’s market in her neighborhood. She rented out a corner of a commercial kitchen in the warehouse district, where she spends some evenings preparing and packaging the treats she’ll hawk every Sunday. At the market, she gets a great response—and even has some loyal, repeat customers—but the haul she brings in isn’t nearly enough to let her quit her day job. She’s convinced that, if she really wants to grow her business and be successful in the long term, it will really help to get her MBA. But how will she find the time to do it all, and also have some semblance of a personal life? In the face of so many competing priorities, she finds herself procrastinating—instead of moving surely and confidently toward her goals, she waffles, gets lost in social media streams, and is often unfocused. Papers are strewn across her desk, and the tasks just keep mounting. If she’s going to keep her head above water, she needs to make some changes.