“Your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop.”

Why it was said

Brian Tracy places this sentence in the introduction to Eat That Frog!, where it works as the thesis for everything that follows. The rest of the book is a set of techniques for doing exactly what it describes: identifying the task that matters most, starting on it, and finishing it.

What it actually means

Tracy's claim is bold on purpose: of all the skills you could build, the one with the biggest payoff is choosing the right task and then actually doing it. Notice that the sentence has three parts, and people usually fail at a different one. Some never decide what matters most, so they stay busy with whatever is loudest. Some decide but never start, because the important task is also the uncomfortable one. Some start and drift before finishing. The frog of the title is that important, uncomfortable task, and the book's advice is to deal with it first, before the day fills up with easier work.

How to use it

1. 1Before opening email tomorrow, write down the one task that would make the biggest difference if it were finished today, and start there.
2. 2Notice which of the three steps you usually miss, choosing, starting or finishing, and build one habit for that step alone.
3. 3Judge the day by whether the most important task moved, not by how many smaller ones you ticked off.