Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Don’t Become Addicted
In Washington not long ago, I was at a business luncheon with a roomful of
high-level executives. Prior to the beginning of the luncheon, one of the
organizers stood up and said a short grace. All the executives bowed their
heads. When the grace was over, the luncheon began.
However, at my table, four or five out of the eight people seemed to have
been greatly affected by the prayer. They kept their heads down and their
hands in their laps, even when the food was served. They seemed to be lost
in deep thought over the profound questions of the day.
Then I realized that they were not praying at all. They were all intensely
focused on their smartphones, sending and receiving e-mails, typing like
frantic teenagers playing video games. They were all lost to the world
around them, drowning in a deep sink full of information exchange.
Take Back Your Time
One of my clients found himself bound and chained to his computer,
receiving and responding to e-mails several hours each day. The more time
he spent at his computer, the fewer of his other important tasks he was able
to get done. The stress caused by these undone tasks, building up like an
avalanche overhang, started to affect his personality, his health, and his
sleeping habits.
We taught him about the 80/20 Rule and how it applied to e-mails. He
deleted and unsubscribed from the 80 percent of his e-mails that had no
value. Of the remaining 20 percent, only 4 percent required immediate
responses. The other 16 percent could be transferred to an action folder to
be worked on later.
Refuse to Be a Slave
Unchain yourself from your computer. Unsubscribe from all unwanted
newsletters. Set up an autoresponder that says, “I check my e-mail only

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twice per day. I will reply as soon as possible. If this is an emergency,
phone this number.”
A journalist for Fortune magazine once wrote that when he arrived back
at the office after a two-week European vacation, he had more than 700 e-
mails waiting for him. He realized that it would take him a week to get
through them all before starting on important projects.
For the first time in his career, he took a deep breath and punched the
Delete All button, erasing those 700 e-mails forever. He then got busy with
the projects that were really important to him and his company.
His explanation was simple: “I realized that, just because somebody
sends me an e-mail, it does not mean that they own a piece of my life.”
Although not many people would delete their entire in-box, you can
definitely delete and ignore more e-mails than you do right now. Empower
yourself to remove all e-mails that don’t relate to important goals and
relationships.