“Eat That Frog” is a book written by productivity expert, Brian Tracy. It presents 21 ways to become more productive in every aspect of life and overcome procrastination.
As you are here, you have probably heard of this creation and you are looking for Eat That Frog Examples in use in real life. But if not, I can recommend you to first get familiar with our other article Eat That Frog: 21 Principles To Achieve Your Goals.
In this article, we will present 3 Real Life Eat That Frog Examples. 3 different people, implemented Eat That Frog 21 Principles to make their lives greater. There is a relevant diversity among them, so choose which one fits you best and start reading. There is a short description of our Eat That Frog Examples below.
- Example #1: The 35-year-old mother of two kids, working full-time. She is struggling to balance her demanding job and family responsibilities.
- Example #2: The 29-year-old software engineer, battling to lose weight and boost his self-esteem amid the hardships of daily life.
- Example #3: Economy student working part-time to make his dreams of graduating with honors come true, struggling with a lack of energy and time due to his busy schedule.
Eat That Frog Examples
Example #1: Mother Working Full-Time
Meet Jane, the first Eat That Frog example, a 35-year-old mother of two young children, working full-time as a marketing manager at a fast-paced tech company. Jane is a dedicated and hardworking individual, but lately, she’s been overwhelmed and struggling to balance her demanding job and family responsibilities.
Every morning, Jane faces chaos while getting her kids ready for school and preparing for work. This often results in her leaving home stressed and unprepared for the day ahead. As a marketing manager, she often needs to meet tight deadlines. The pressure and responsibility to deliver results can sometimes be overwhelming. After an exhausting day at work, Jane has to deal with home chores such as preparing dinner for the family, doing the laundry, or helping her kids with homework. With her busy schedule, Jane rarely gets time for herself, which affects her overall well-being.
Here is how she dealt with her everyday problems with Eat That Frog 21 Principles:
Jane decided to set the table. She defined and wrote down her clear, specific goals for both her work and personal life. This helped her realize what she is aiming for in her life. She established the priority of spending more time with her family and developing at work.
Also, Jane started planning every day in advance. She spent about 10 minutes every evening listing her tasks for the next day. To identify the most important task (her frog for the following day) she kept considering the consequences of the wrote-down tasks until she finds the one. To manage the importance of the rest of her tasks, she used the ABCDE method. This helped her prioritize her daily tasks and stay organized and effective.
Jane didn’t want to become overwhelmed again. That’s why she applied the Law of Three. Every day she limited herself to 3 major tasks at work and 3 major tasks at home. This was optimal for both her time and energy. Now, Jane stays focused throughout her work but isn’t exhausted. That means she has more vitality and time to spend with her family.
Once a week, Jane spent about 20 minutes identifying the key constraints in her work and daily routine. She analyzed her life and tried to find things that are holding her back from achieving her goals. She took steps to remove or mitigate these obstacles to enhance her productivity.
For example, lately, she realized that she spent too much time using her mobile phone without a real purpose. She got into the habit of killing her time with technology. So, Jane disciplined herself to use her phone only when needed. She placed some papers all over her house saying “Technology is just a tool”. It reminded her to use her phone wisely and not abuse it. And this is how she managed this problem. Now she finishes her tasks quicker and has more time for her family.
To make her deadlines, Jane motivates herself to action. She is aware that her internal thoughts shape her emotions. That’s why she became an optimist and no matter what, she looks for some positives. Keeping her energy focused on moving forwards lets her stay motivated and perform at her best. This lets Jane finish her tasks faster than ever and her stress has been reduced.
Developing at work is important for Jane. That’s why she prepares thoroughly before she begins her work. Having everything she needs at hand lets her avoid distractions and get more things done faster. She doesn’t need to stand up and look for materials, information, or details she requires to complete her job no more. This increased her productivity. Upgrading her skills has never become easier for her.
As Jane consistently applies the Eat That Frog principles, she experiences a positive transformation in her life. Her stress has been reduced. She started to manage her time so well, that she now has time both for her family and for herself. She is more present and engaged with her family. She started exercising, reading, and doing things that help her recharge and stay motivated. Her mental and physical health got better. Her skin looks younger. She is no longer worried about deadlines. She is calm and organized. Also, by putting in her hard work, Jane started to stand out at her work.
By adopting Eat That Frog principles, Jane started to gain happiness and thrive in each area of her life.
Example #2: The Weight Loss Journey
The second Eat That Frog example is David, a 29-year-old man, working as a software engineer. David has always been committed to his demanding work and had no time for himself. As the years went by, his weight gradually increased, and he felt the need to lose those extra pounds to improve his overall health and well-being.
David struggled to start his weight loss journey. He had a lack of structure. Without a clear plan, David found himself procrastinating on starting. His demanding job and sedentary lifestyle made him feel spiritless. He was lacking energy. David felt too exhausted to hit the gym, go jogging, or even make himself some food. After work, everything seemed too challenging. He got used to having snacks, ordering fast foods, and having comfort food. All those bad habits led to excess weight and as a consequence to low self-esteem and negative thoughts.
This is how David managed to take steps to start his weight loss journey with Eat That Frog 21 Principles:
David set his goal. His main goal was to lose at least 1 pound per week. He sliced and diced this challenge into many measurable tasks like having only 1 cheat meal per week, hitting the gym 3 times a week or getting rid of snacks in his workspace. He listed the goal and the tasks on paper and launched strongly toward them.
David started planning every day in advance. Using the strategy called time blocking, he started breaking his days into huge blocks of time. Every evening he planned his workouts and ensured that everything fits into his busy schedule. Grocery shopping, preparing healthy meals, workouts. These kinds of activities had to have their own blocks of time. By managing his time, David became more organized and found it easier to take action.
As he was starting his journey, he identified his key constraints and tried to figure out how could he moderate them. He realized that he always kept a bowl full of candies at his desk, so he decided to exchange a bowl of sweets for a bowl of fruits. Also, he understood that technology can be a terrible master. He had a lot of bad habits connected to technology. Habits like watching series without restraint, using a phone before sleeping, or checking social media pointlessly. He reduced the time spent in front of the screen and started reading books before falling asleep. Removing things that were holding him back had a big impact on his journey.
David understood, that on the other side, technology can be a wonderful servant. The possibilities the internet is giving us nowadays are awesome. He got himself mobile applications for counting calories and searching exercises. This saved a lot of his time. Instead of handling dull calculations on paper, he could just search for the product in the app and insert the amount of it. Also, instead of scrolling through many websites looking for adequate exercise, he could just choose the part of the body and an entire list of exercises popped out.
David became his own cheerleader. As his thoughts were positive, he found it easier to perform at his best. Becoming an optimist kept him continually motivated. He kept thinking about his dream physique not to lose motivation and to keep the hard work going. He didn’t allow himself to get overwhelmed by negative thoughts. He kept his energy focused on moving forward.
David took charge of his life and put pressure on himself to reach his goal. He was sick of feeling bad about his figure. He didn’t waste time waiting for someone who would come and help him lose weight. He took matters into his own hands. David knew that he needed to become the leader of his life and so he did. He put pressure on himself to gain motivation to keep going through the process. This made him determined and more confident.
David stuck to the Eat That Frog principles and as a result he kept achieving his goal. As time went by, he managed to lose over 20 pounds. Nowadays, he feels great about his figure. His self-esteem is much higher. He is no longer concerned about going to the beach or swimming pool. Also, David doesn’t struggle with a lack of energy anymore. Due to a healthy lifestyle, he started gaining a huge amount of vitality. He is bursting with energy.
By adopting Eat That Frog Principles, David not only lost some weight. His life became colorful again, and his general well-being is much better. Now, David is enjoying his life like never before.
Example #3: Working Ambitious Student
The last Eat That Frog example is Alex, a diligent young man in his early twenties, studying economics at a prestigious university. Determined to pursue his dreams, he works part-time as a waiter to support himself financially. Also, Alex is passionate about model making, which is his hobby. However, balancing his studies and work comes with its own set of challenges.
As expected, juggling between classes, assignments, and work shifts leaves Alex with little time for personal pursuits and self-care. Also, his demanding schedule takes a toll on Alex’s energy levels, making it difficult to stay focused during study sessions. Overwhelmed by the workload, Alex occasionally procrastinates, putting off important tasks until the last minute. Also, he finds it challenging to balance his studies and work while maintaining meaningful social connections, and obviously, he is also lacking time for his hobby.
Here is how Alex dealt with his everyday problems with Eat That Frog 21 Principles:
In the beginning, Alex set clear goals. He was wishing to excel in economics and graduate with honors. Also one of his goals was to dedicate one evening per week to meeting with friends or developing his hobby. Alex wrote down his goals to make them real, and so he could remind himself of what he is working for.
Every evening, Alex created a to-do list for the next day, prioritizing his study sessions, assignments, and work shifts with the ABCDE Method. This helped him to stay organized and get rid of diffused effort. Making out his list the night before also made his subconscious mind work on it while he was sleeping, which resulted in better ideas after waking up. Also, he started to break his days into blocks of time, which allowed him to manage his time very well.
While prioritizing his tasks, Alex always considered the consequences of them. He kept asking himself questions like which task will have the biggest impact on the outcome, what are the positive and negative consequences of doing or not doing each task, etc.
This helped him to find this task, which was the most important each day – it was his frog. Also, reminding himself of the possible consequences of not staying disciplined in his studies kept Alex motivated.
Furthermore, he was able to find some of the tasks, that had very little impact on his development and he aimed to get rid of them. This resulted in more spare time for his personal needs.
As graduating with honors was Alex’s main goal, his frog was most often connected with his studies, usually, it was one of his assignments. He always tackled his frog first during his study sessions. By preparing thoroughly before he began and focusing all his attention, Alex became highly productive and managed to finish his tasks quicker than ever.
He got into the habit of preparing all the stuff he needed to execute his task before beginning. Books, notebooks, useful websites, and other materials were at hand before he began. This allowed him to keep the workflow. Also, he got rid of everything that might distract him from work. He always turned off notifications and put his phone out of his sight. All of this allowed him to efficiently and quickly Eat his Frogs, resulting in more time to allocate to other matters.
Sometimes, Alex had to deal with a major project at university. As he didn’t want to get demotivated by the size of it, he sliced and diced the project. It means that he divided the whole project into smaller tasks. This technique was extremely useful because he didn’t discourage himself as he first approached big projects. Accomplishing each subsequent task fueled him to keep going. Thanks to this method, Alex stopped procrastinating on important tasks.
Alex tried periodically to identify things that were holding him back from success. His main nightmare turned out to be his phone. Technology can be a terrible master. He noticed that checking notifications and browsing social media had become a habit for him. This obsessive phone use was negatively impacting his daily life. It consumed a lot of his time and made it harder for him to concentrate, leading to decreased productivity.
Alex got rid of many apps that were taking up his time and reduced the time spent using his phone. He wanted his relationship with technology to bed completely under his control. As a result, his efficiency increased, and his focus improved significantly.
With time, Alex’s dedication to the Eat That Frog 21 Principles yields fruitful results. He was thriving in all aspects of his life. His academic performance was so outstanding that he secured a scholarship, which notably improved his financial situation. As a result, he didn’t have to work as much as before, allowing him to have more spare time for friends and his hobby. All of these positive changes contributed to an overall improvement in his well-being. Alex feels fantastic ever since he started applying the Eat That Frog 21 Principles.
