Once you learn how to accomplish your major objectives, the rest of the day will unfold smoothly. You’ll be able to accomplish more things each day, and you’ll be able to prioritize which tasks you focus on the most. Thanks to a few simple changes, you can improve your organization’s productivity and profitability.

What Does “Eat the Frog” Mean?

Eat the frog is when you prioritize your tasks to get more done each day. The Eat That Frog book by author Brian Tracy encourages you to do your biggest, most important task first before working on your other goals.

Years ago, Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

Other than clearly being right about eating a literal frog, Twain’s quote ended up inspiring a productivity book. In the book, the eat the frog meaning involves focusing on your most important task first. Once you’ve completed your most crucial task for the day, you can move on to doing the remainder of your goals.

You should start by identifying your frog for the day. Once you’ve figured out your most important task, you eat the frog first. Then, you do the same process each morning.

Benefits of the Eat the Frog Method

There are a few ways the eat the frog method can help you achieve your personal and organizational goals.

Stop Procrastinating

People tend to procrastinate when it comes to big tasks. Instead of spending all of your time dreading a major task, you can get it done right away. Then, the rest of your to-do list will go faster because you aren’t dreading a big project.

Boost Your Deep Work Capabilities

By using eat the frog and one of the best time trackers, you can prioritize important tasks. When you procrastinate, you end up getting distracted by busy work. Your ability to focus and do deep work will improve significantly when you start scheduling your important tasks for first thing in the day.

Improve Your Workday

Not only will this method help you accomplish more each day, but it will also help you enjoy your workday more. Instead of dreading a major project and putting it off until last, you can get it done right away. Afterward, you can enjoy a sense of relief as you work on the rest of your projects.

How to Integrate Eating the Frog Into Your Business

The Eat That Frog book can help with more than your personal productivity. Eating the frog can improve your company’s productivity and profitability as well. To get started with this technique, try using the following tips with your employees and colleagues.

1. Get a Time Tracker

One of the biggest reasons to eat the frog first is because it allows you to prioritize which tasks you get done first. To help with prioritizing tasks, you can also get your team members to use a time tracker.

Time trackers help your team members to stay accountable for how they are using their time. They can also show you how to spot busy work, so you can modify how your team approaches each day.

2. Break To-Do List Tasks Into Smaller Tasks

When a task is quite large or complex, it can seem insurmountable for your team members. To help your employees accomplish their goals each day, you should break down major goals into smaller tasks. Divide each day’s work into different tasks, so team members have something manageable to work on.

3. Be Smart About Your Best Hours

Although everyone is different, there are a few common times of day when people do their best work. For your typical worker, morning time is when they’ll get their best work done. During the after-lunch slump, employees can do emails, meetings, and less important tasks.

Prioritizing certain times is one of the top ways to get your team’s best efforts. Ideally, you should schedule important tasks during their best hours, so they will be more productive and efficient. The last thing you want workers to do is to check their email during their most productive time of the day.

4. Prepare for the Next Day

Another way your team can set themselves up for success is by preparing for the next day’s frog. For example, you should get out the outline and research you need tonight for the presentation you want to work on tomorrow. By doing this, you can make starting the next day’s frog as easy as possible.

While preparing for the next day’s frog is an excellent technique, you don’t want your team planning too far ahead. It’s hard to know exactly where they will be in a project in a week or a month, so advance planning can set them up to fail. Instead, be flexible about the future, so your team can adjust as the project develops over time.

5. Get Rid of Busy Work

You might not be able to get rid of all of your busy work, but you should be able to reduce some of the unnecessary tasks your employees do each day. With time tracking software, you can automate the way your team shares and creates schedules. Instead of manually figuring out how to distribute the workload evenly or track overtime, the software program will handle these tasks automatically.

Some busy work may be unavoidable, like checking emails or going to meetings. When this is the case, you can use your time tracker to schedule busy work for an employee’s least productive hours.

Make Your Team More Productive

Whether you run a small business or manage a team at a multinational conglomerate, eat the frog can help you boost your team’s productivity. Other tools, like time tracking software, can help you use this productivity technique and maximize your company’s profitability.

To learn more, you can sign up for Time Tracker by eBillity for a free 14-day trial today!

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Bear in mind that performance is different from productivity. Your team could be accomplishing their tasks and meeting their goals (performing), but it takes more time, effort, or staff to get them done (unproductive). You want them to work efficiently so they can be more productive in meeting their performance goals.

So, how do you do that? Below are 11 strategies to improve employee productivity and work performance.

Strategies to Boost Employee Performance

1. Set Goals and KPIs

Your employees should know if they are performing well. This means you should set and communicate what their goals are. And you need to explain how their performance will be measured so that expectations are clear.

This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) come in. Some KPIs that measure performance or productivity include revenue per employee, profit per employee, average task completion rate, and overtime per employee.

2. Invest in L&D

Do you want your team to be better at their jobs? Invest in their learning and development (L&D). By enhancing their skills, their work performance improves. And the more they know, the more they can do. As a result, their productivity increases as well.

Training should not only be on skills directly related to their job description but also on the way they work. Equip your employees with soft skills such as time management, communication, and project management so they can work more efficiently.

3. Ensure Open Communication

Communication is critical in setting objectives and giving instructions to ensure your team understands their expectations. You need to keep them in the loop to avoid misunderstanding and duplication of work. And you should provide regular feedback on how they are doing.

Remember that communication is two-way. Your employees should be able to offer comments and suggestions on how to improve the way things are done. And they must feel safe and valued to be open and honest with their concerns and feedback.

4. Minimize Disruptions

Unfortunately, too much communication can be disruptive. You may be holding too many meetings, sending too many emails and chat messages, and requiring too many reports. You want to avoid busy work and give your team time for deep, focused work to get their real job done.

Keep your meetings few, short, and to the point, including only those directly involved. Do the same with emails, chats, and reports.

5. Improve Workplace Conditions

The physical environment of your office affects employee productivity and performance. Lighting, temperature, colors, and ergonomics all play a part in helping your employees work comfortably and even in setting their moods.

Workplace conditions are not just physical. Your policies on breaks, leaves, and downtime also impact employee engagement and productivity. You should allow a level of freedom for your team to relax, socialize, and recharge.

6. Offer Flexible Work Arrangements

Employees today expect more flexibility on where, when, and how they work. They have experienced during the pandemic that they can be as productive, if not more so if they work at home or during hours that are best for them. Find the right balance so your team enjoys workplace flexibility and meets their productivity and performance goals.

7. Avoid Micromanaging

Hovering over your employees, literally or figuratively, is very demotivating. It shows a lack of trust and confidence in their ability to do their job well. If you are clear with your expectations and requirements and your people are trained well to do their jobs, you should take a step back and delegate. Giving your team autonomy is crucial in making them engaged, productive, and motivated.

You should also allow them to make mistakes that they can learn from. Otherwise, they will not take risks, they won’t take initiative, and they will always be waiting on you to tell them what to do.

8. Offer Incentives and Recognition

Employees often leave because they are not recognized for their contributions and do not feel seen or valued. Having an employee recognition program institutionalizes a culture of recognizing and rewarding employees. It can be as simple as acknowledging their excellent work publicly during meetings and as elaborate as giving tiered incentives and running an annual awarding event.

9. Encourage Teamwork

Your employees can increase their productivity and improve their performance if they work as a team. Teamwork allows you to distribute tasks to people best suited for them and those with more bandwidth. It makes the process more efficient.

Teamwork also means collaborating to arrive at the best, fastest solution. Another way to help your team is to provide support, whether it’s giving access to more resources or removing bottlenecks in your organization.

10. Use Automation and Tools

Free up your team’s time by deploying workplace automation using software that eliminates manual processes. A lot of low-value, repetitive tasks can be automated. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming an essential tool in increasing efficiency, accuracy, and productivity.

Technology allows people to focus on high-value tasks that cannot be automated, such as strategy, creative work, and critical thinking. By no longer doing boring, mundane activities, your team becomes more engaged and happier at work.

11. Help With Time Management

Your employees can be more productive if they can track their time. It helps them identify areas for improvement. Setting strict deadlines also is an excellent way to battle inertia and procrastination. Often, people push themselves to get things done to meet deadlines.

You can also help your team become more productive by training them on time blocking, prioritizing, and other time management techniques.

Time Tracker by eBillity is an easy and efficient employee time tracking software that can help manage employee time and activities and improve productivity. Get a free trial today.

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