Eat That Frog with Swiss Cheese!

Eat That Frog!






In “Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time” Brian Tracy recommends that you think continually of ways to save, schedule, and consolidate large chunks of time. Then, use that time to work on your most important tasks. However, if you don’t have a large chunk of time available to work on an important task, such as a report that’s due in a couple of weeks, it’s a mistake to keep postponing the task until you do have a few hours of uninterrupted time.

Instead, you should apply the “Swiss Cheese Approach”. This is a method that was introduced by Alan Lakein in his book, “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life”. Of course, Swiss cheese is easily recognizable because it’s full of holes. According to Lakein, “the underlying assumption of the Swiss cheese approach is that it is indeed possible to get something started in five minutes or less. And once you’ve started, you’ve given yourself the opportunity to keep going.”

In a nutshell, the Swiss Cheese Approach consists of the following:

• Work in small holes of time, such as fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, or half an hour.
• Poke small holes into a large task on a consistent basis.

This approach works for the following reasons:

• Once you get started on a task, it no longer looks as difficult and overwhelming as it did before you got started.
• By poking small holes in a project you’ll be making constant progress at a good pace.
• This approach allows you to create a sense of forward momentum.
• Each time that you get a little bit of the task done, it gives you a feeling of accomplishment.
• You’re making good use of small pockets of time, instead of wasting that time.

When you only have fifteen or twenty minutes to work on your project, instead of telling yourself that you’re better off waiting until you have more time to work on it, ask yourself the following questions:

• “What can I get done in these fifteen minutes?”
• “Is there a small segment of the project that I can get started on?”
• “How can I use this time to poke a small hole into this project?”

Keep poking holes into the project whenever you have a few minutes to spare, and soon you’ll be surprised to discover that you’re practically done with the project.