Eat That Frog! O t h e r b o o k s b y b r I a n Tr a c y

Take Back Your Time
One of my clients, with distributors in nineteen states,
found himself bound and chained to his computer, re-
ceiving 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 ap-
plied to e-mails. Fully 80 percent of the e-mails that he re-
ceived were of no value and should not even be opened.
They should be deleted immediately.
Of the remaining 20 percent, only 20 percent of those,
or 4 percent of his e-mails, actually required an imme-
diate response of some kind. The other 16 percent could
be ignored temporarily or transferred to an action folder
where they could be dealt with one at a time.
Standardize and Delegate
My client felt that no one else had the ability to sort his
e-mails, more than 300 per day, and that he had to do it
all himself, no matter how much time it took. We en-
92
e at t h at f ro g
!

---

couraged him to sit down with his secretary and go
through his e-mails, showing her which ones were im-
portant, which ones were unimportant, and how to deal
with the most common questions and requests.
To his surprise, within two hours his secretary knew
enough to handle most of his e-mails for him. From
then on, she would come in each morning and delete the
80 percent of e-mails that were of no value. She would
transfer the essential e-mails requesting personal action
by her boss into a separate folder. If there was a question
about an e-mail, she would transfer it to a “process” folder
for him to look at at his convenience.
At our next meeting, he told me that he had tracked
the results of this exercise and calculated that he was
now saving twenty-three hours per week that he could
spend on eating his frogs and completing his most im-
portant tasks. This simple exercise transformed his life,
reduced his stress levels, improved his health and en-
ergy, and made him a much more relaxed and positive
person.
Here is a question for you: How would your life
change if you had an extra twenty-three hours each week
with which to think, work, plan, talk with key coworkers,
or even go for a walk with your spouse?