​Growing up, I thought personal development books were self-indulgent and all fluff. I still think some of them are. But the real heavyweights, the ones that go beyond being “inspirational” (vacuous buzzword of the decade), can change the way we understand ourselves and give us the tools to facilitate real change in our lives. I have mentioned one of my favourites before, but here I am going to talk about one I read recently and immediately knew to be valuable, even to those who “don’t read self-help books”.

Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy is short and practical. At 109 pages long, each of the 21 chapters offers a simple strategy to become more effective with our time and “get more of the important things done today”, as the cover states. From “Set the Table” to “Technology is a Terrible Master” (we can all imagine what that one might be about), each chapter gives us the basic understanding we need then tells us what we need to do. This book doesn’t explore the emotional and psychological causes behind procrastination, as some other books do. While I do appreciate such insights, I think there is a time and place for both types of personal development book (and they complement each other very nicely). I would say Eat That Frog! is one to read, maybe get in a few highlights, then implement straight away.

I listened to this as an audiobook first. It’s narrated by the author and is very easy to listen to. When I decided I liked it, I bought the paper version so that I could go back to individual chapters when I wanted to remind myself of a particular technique.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to improve their time management skills and get stuff done now!