Eat the frog for breakfast

How you spend time is how you succeed. It is interesting how intertwined time and money are, as they are both being ‘spent’. However, only ‘one of them’ can be earned back and we are more likely to ‘use the other’ in the process.
Both rich and poor, both young and old, both tall and short, both employed and unemployed have the same number of hours in a day. What is different is how they each ‘spend’ their time.

Questions: Have you ever imagined how much time you have been given to live? What if you knew you are left with exactly x number of years/months/days/hours to live? Would you spend your days, hours and minutes differently?

Most of us spend at most 20% of our day doing things that would bring 80% of the income. The other 80% is spent unproductively, at least for the most part, whether deliberately or ignorantly.
There is a concept I heard about few months ago and it is called ‘eating the frog’. It simply means: Doing the most necessary and important tasks you don’t really enjoy first thing in the morning until completed. This is due to the assumption that; the more you delay them, the more irritated you would be during the day whilst thinking about doing them, the less enjoyable your work day would be, the less likely you’d do them that day and the less likely you would be successful. True?
So it is advisable you get those tasks done first thing in the morning and get them out of the way. Am sure am not going to feel bad doing these tasks first thing in the morning as much as I would had I eaten a frog.

Here are five things I think we should do each day to try and manage time better:

1. Plan your next day the night before and make sure each hour is planned for
2. Make sure you ‘eat the frog for breakfast’.
3. Do the things you are passionate about and good at and delegate the rest
4. At the end of each day take stock of your daily plan and scratch those you completed off the list and/or reschedule those you didn’t.
5. Quantify the value you are getting in exchange of your time and decide if you exchanged you time too cheaply. (This is the tough one, because it forces one to think about opportunity cost)

Remember, only you can decide how valuable your time is. Secondly, you are spending your time each second, whether you like it or not, or are aware or not!. So, make it count!

Check this video: