“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” -Mark Twain

Track the work that you’re actually doing. Figure out what you spend the most time on. Focus on improving the work you do. Focus on being more effective throughout your day.

You may think you’re being productive and working hard when in reality you’re busy. Being busy isn’t being productive. 

When you’re busy it seems like you’ve accomplished a lot in the day. You’re moving from one thing to the next. Constantly on the go. Killing it.

At the end of the day you look at your to-do list or you look back on what you’ve accomplished in the day. You realize you practically did nothing. That’s the effect of being busy. You feel beat at the end of the day but you actually accomplish very little.

Focus on being effective. Track your time. Time how long you work on specific things. Time your distractions. Time breaks. You may realize you waste a lot of your day on unproductive tasks. You may also realize you’re incredibly productive during certain times of the day. Gather this information after a week of tracking your days. Implement your new schedule after you calculate the results. 

Create a to-do list. Only put the three most important tasks of the day. Complete the task you’re dreading the most first. Eat the frog. 

You’ll be surprised how much time is actually wasted on unimportant areas. If you really want to change, track your hours outside of work. Focus on doing things consistently that will align with your goals. Reading an hour a day. Exercising five days a week. Working on a passion project an hour a day. Whatever it may be, you’ll realize areas you can reduce to help you get closer to your goals.

It’s important to be more aware of where we spend the majority of our time. Focus on what you can improve daily. Your daily actions will become habits. Once continuous action of a skill become a daily habit, focus on improving another area or adding another skill. 

Have deliberate action and focus on improvement. Focus on your time. It will bring you closer to your goals.