Video review — tap to play
Eat That Frog!, Fourth Edition: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
What if the key to getting more done is simply tackling your most important task first? In *Eat That Frog!*, Brian Tracy presents a practical approach to overcoming procrastination, managing distractions, and making meaningful progress on your biggest goals. The book offers 21 principles for planning ahead, breaking difficult tasks into manageable steps, building valuable skills, and creating productive habits. With tools for self-discipline, organization, and consistent action, Tracy provides a straightforward system for turning overwhelming priorities into achievable results—one important task at a time.
- Release Date
- 2001
- Length
- 128 pages
- Publisher
- Berrett-Koehler Publishers
We may earn a commission if you buy through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Our Review
About the book
Brian Tracy’s compact productivity guide argues that the key to getting more done is identifying your most important, most dreaded task and tackling it first. It offers a series of short chapters with techniques for setting goals, prioritizing, planning the day and beating procrastination.
Our review
One memorable rule anchors this pocket pep talk: do the hardest important thing before anything else.
Tracy’s book is built around a single vivid metaphor, and it is a good one. The frog is the task you most want to avoid but that matters most, and the advice is to deal with it first thing. Around that idea he arranges a couple dozen bite-sized chapters on goal setting, the eighty-twenty rule, planning in advance and focusing on one task until it is done. Each chapter closes with action steps, which makes the book easy to skim, revisit and actually apply.
The trouble is that nearly every principle here has become standard productivity advice, so seasoned readers will recognize most of it. Tracy’s tone is brisk and motivational, sometimes bordering on sales seminar, and the book rarely engages with why people procrastinate emotionally, or with modern distractions in any depth. For a student, a new manager or anyone stuck in avoidance mode, though, it is a fast, practical jolt that can genuinely change a morning routine.
What we loved
- One crisp, memorable core idea
- Short chapters with clear action steps
- Readable in a single sitting
Keep in mind
- Much of the advice is familiar if you have read other productivity books
- Motivational tone skims past the deeper causes of procrastination
Read it if you like
Atomic Habits by James Clear, Getting Things Done by David Allen, readers new to productivity books
The verdict
A quick, useful kickstart rather than a deep system; worth an afternoon if you keep postponing the task that matters.
