I recently undertook to read ‘Eat that Frog’ by Brian Tracy as part of an initiative by Perthshire Businesswomen’s Network (i.e. the Busy Businesswomen’s Bookclub) and fortunately it turned out to be a really worthwhile read! Below I summarise why, which I hope might encourage you to read the book too – I’m confident you’ll find it useful.
‘Eat that frog’ isn’t anything about literally eating frogs of course, but rather describes 21 personal effectiveness techniques which the author has gathered over the years from various successful people he’s met. A slim book at 118 pages all in, the book is helpfully split into 21 chapters (one for each technique) plus an intro and conclusion and this format was a great help in getting through it, as you can easily commit to read a couple of chapters quickly, rather than getting mired in heavy dense text common to many other business books. Instead of lengthy descriptions of theory or research, Tracy favours specific actions which you can take to improve your working life.
As the author is American I’ll be honest and say that I initially worried that the cultural divide would mean the content might come across as overly optimistic and ambitious to a middle-aged British woman, but on the contrary, I found it really practical and honest with refreshing statements in the opening paragraphs like the realisation that ‘there is never enough time to do everything you have to do’.
Since we’re starting a new year, it’s a great chance to put into action one of the first suggestions in the book which is to write down on paper what you want to accomplish and have lists of goals for life, for the year, for the month and for the day. Follow that up with other suggestions like breaking large tasks into smaller parts to make them more manageable or changing your settings and email habits so as not being a slave to technology or and you’ll be on track to be more effective and feel more in control of your time that you have felt in a while.
‘Eat that Frog’ is also available on Audible so you could do the ultimate in time management and listen to it whilst doing something else like exercising – that’s true multi-tasking!
A footnote about ‘The Busy Businesswomen’s Book Club’
The rationale behind a business bookclub is that, while books can challenge and inspire you, it’s been proven from research that the best way to remember new ideas and put them into action is to share your thoughts and ideas with someone else. In fact, it has been found that participating in a book discussion increases your retention of the content by 70%!
Apparently book clubs can also help us:
· Improve relationships
· Engage in powerful conversations
· Invest in our own professional development
· Clarify your thinking
· Challenge you assumptions
Of course, they are also a great reason to get reading which is of course a key way to develop your skills, make you a better and more confident communicator, and improve your emotional intelligence. Being in a club makes it easier to commit to read more regularly and saves it being just a solitary activity so if you want to find out more check out www.PBN.org.uk.