Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy

"If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first."

Brian Tracy is a business speaker and author who has trained executives and sales teams worldwide over a career spanning five decades. Eat That Frog!, his best-known book, distills a single core idea from decades of productivity coaching: identify your most important, most difficult task — your 'frog' — and do it first, before anything else can derail you.

Author of Eat That Frog!, No Excuses!, Goals!, and Maximum Achievement·Business speaker and executive coach·Key themes: self-discipline, goals, and achievement
Eat That Frog! Summary & Review: How to Stop Procrastinating and Do Your Most Important Work First — Read SummaryBrowse All Books ↓
Brian Tracy

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Key Ideas & Recurring Themes

Eat That Frog First

Tackle your single most important, most difficult task at the start of the day, before distractions and lower-priority work can eat into your energy and willpower.

Getting Started Is the Hardest Part

Tracy argues that momentum, not motivation, drives follow-through — once you actually begin a valuable task, continuing becomes far easier than starting did.

Doing Isn't Always Worth Doing Well

One of the worst uses of time is doing something very well that didn't need to be done at all — prioritization has to come before execution, not after.

Do It Whether You Feel Like It

Tracy’s definition of self-discipline: do what you should do, when you should do it, even when the mood has left. Each kept promise raises self-esteem; each delay trains the opposite.

Write It and Work It Daily

A goal that stays in your head is a wish. Write ten, circle one, move it every day.

Self-concept is the ceiling

Performance cannot outrun the inner picture. Raise the self-image, then the week can follow.

Notable Quotes

"One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not to be done at all."
— Eat That Frog!
"If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first."
— Eat That Frog!
"The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you seem to be naturally motivated to continue."
— Eat That Frog!
"Rule: Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field."
— Eat That Frog!
"Self-discipline is the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."
— No Excuses!
"A goal that is not in writing is not a goal at all. It is merely a wish."
— Goals!
"You become what you think about most of the time."
— Maximum Achievement

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Book Author Brian Tracy