Book · 2001
Eat That Frog!
by Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy's 21-chapter argument that you should do the worst task on your list first, every morning, without negotiating with yourself.
What does Reddit think of Eat That Frog!?
Eat That Frog! r/getdisciplined adds 2 and r/selfimprovement contributes 1. Activity peaked in 2020-2021 and has since slowed to occasional appearances, most recently in r/productivity in November 2025. The Reddit reception is friendly but not reverential. The highest-voted comment (↑248) name-checks the book while reaching for a Mike Tyson quote as the punchline — "do something you hate but do it like you love it" — which gives you a sense of the tone. Eat That Frog! is cited as the book behind an already-intuitive idea rather than the source of a genuinely new one. r/getdisciplined (↑43) makes the most useful distinction: unlike other self-help books, it's short and practical, doesn't pad. That brevity is the core compliment in the data. A r/productivity commenter (↑77) describes doing a brain dump and working down from hardest to easiest task — the frog method without necessarily crediting the frog. The book gets borrowed from rather than argued about. Nobody in the tracked data disputes the core claim; the implicit criticism is that the idea fits in a paragraph and Brian Tracy wrote 200 pages.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Prioritization by difficulty — hardest task first
- · Procrastination as a daily decision rather than a personality trait
- · Task categorization (A/B/C priority systems)
- · Morning momentum as a productivity lever
- · Anti-padding: short practical books vs. bloated self-help
Common praise
- + r/getdisciplined (↑43) singles it out for being short and practical — 'doesn't add a lot of fluff' — which is the rarest compliment in self-help.
- + The core method gets applied in r/productivity threads without even citing the book, which means the idea stuck well enough to become ambient advice.
- + r/productivity (↑77) describes the exact frog method — brain dump, pick the hardest, work down — as 'surprisingly effective', framing it as a personal discovery that the book had already named.
Common criticism
- − The core idea fits in one sentence, and multiple r/productivity commenters convey it that way without needing the full book.
- − At 10 mentions over five active years, it doesn't generate discussion — it gets listed and cited but rarely examined.
- − The highest-upvoted mention (↑248) treats it as supporting evidence for a Mike Tyson quote, which is a mild demotion for the source text.
Who it's for
You already know you should do the hard thing first. You just don't. If that gap between knowing and doing is the problem, this book addresses it directly and doesn't take long. r/getdisciplined users recommend it to people who want to stop procrastinating specifically — not to people designing productivity systems from scratch. If you're already running a GTD setup or have a functioning morning routine, Eat That Frog! probably recaps ideas you've already internalized.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Eat That Frog!?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“Sounds like the book Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy. Also reminds me of a Mike Tyson quote, “Do something you hate but do it like you love it.”
“Recently what has been surprisingly effective for me are these: 1. Planning my tasks the night before and listing them down 2. Once I have the list, I categorize it to the following: * A for priority or most important tasks * B for mildly important tasks * C for tasks that doesn't matter much if …
“Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy is also a great book. I find that doing a brain dump is a great way to start my morning or end the night. I make a checklist of tasks that need to be done and purposely pick the hardest and productive thing to accomplish first. Then I work my way down the list and find…
“I'd recommend the book "Eat that frog!" by Brian Tracy, which is based on this idea. Unlike other self help books, it's short and practical. It has a bunch of similar tips, and doesn't add a lot of fluff.
“Definitely like Eat That Frog! and anything else by Brian Tracy. Also +1 for a solid morning routine.
“Brian Tracy’s eat the frog. Take whatever taking is most daunting or unappealing and do it right away. The idea being if you eat that frog right away the rest of the day should be a breeze. A big win right out of the gate!
“Hi! Try to read Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy. The book is great for people wants to stop procrastinating.
“I wish I could give you a quick out but you didn't fall into this hole in a day and you're not going to climb out over night, disclaimer I didn't go from s*** to productive rather s*** to less s*** For some reason this post reminded me of a couple of books, Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy and The 15 M…
“1. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma 2. The 5am Club by Robin Sharma 3. The subtle art of not giving a f\*\*k by Mark Manson 4. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 5. Eat that frog by Brian Tracy
“Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy has a lot of great techniques for dealing with procrastination.
Convinced? Pick up Eat That Frog!
What else does r/productivity read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Guides featuring Eat That Frog!
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
Eat That Frog! — frequently asked
Is Eat That Frog! worth reading if I already know the core idea?+
Probably not. The 10 mentions on Reddit suggest people absorb the idea — do the hardest task first — and apply it without needing the full text. A r/productivity commenter (↑77) described doing exactly the frog method as a personal discovery. The r/getdisciplined recommendation (↑43) emphasizes its brevity as a feature; if you've already spent an hour reading about it, you may have extracted the value.
What does Reddit think of Eat That Frog! compared to other productivity books?+
It gets positioned as the short, no-fluff option. In recommendation lists on r/productivity it appears alongside longer system-building books (GTD, 7 Habits) as the practical complement rather than the intellectual foundation. Nobody argues it changed their worldview. The compliments are structural: short, practical, doesn't waste your time.
Does Eat That Frog! actually help with procrastination, according to Reddit?+
Yes, in a limited way. r/getdisciplined (↑43) explicitly recommends it 'for people who want to stop procrastinating' and calls it practical. But the method works best on a known list of tasks — it doesn't help you figure out what's on the list, just what order to attack it. For deeper procrastination rooted in anxiety or avoidance, commenters in r/getdisciplined point toward Feeling Good by David Burns instead.
Is Eat That Frog! just the 'do hard things first' idea stretched to book length?+
More or less, yes. The Reddit data supports this read. The book contains 21 chapters of task prioritization and anti-procrastination tactics, but the comments that reference it almost always reduce it to the title concept. Brian Tracy adds a categorization system (A/B/C tasks, visible in one r/productivity thread at ↑126) that commenters find useful, but the frog metaphor is what survives.