Leap into success: How ‘Eat That Frog’ method can transform your UPSC prep

The “Eat That Frog” theory comes from Brian Tracy’s famous book Eat That Frog!. The “frog” here is your biggest, hardest and most important task of the day — the one you’re most likely to procrastinate on, but which also has the most impact on your success.

The idea

If you eat your frog first thing in the morning, you win the day.

If you delay it, you waste energy worrying about it and end up being less productive.

It builds self-discipline, focus and momentum, because once the hardest task is done, everything else feels lighter.

How it helps in time management and self-discipline

1. Prioritisation: Forces you to identify high-value tasks instead of wasting time on easy but low-impact ones.
2. Beats procrastination: You tackle the very task you’d usually avoid.
3. Energy management: You use your freshest hours (morning) for the toughest job.
4. Discipline loop: Each day you finish your frog, you train your brain for consistency and mental toughness.
5. Momentum effect: Once the hardest is done, smaller tasks feel easy and you finish them faster.

Applying it to a Civil Services aspirant

Civil services prep is long, overwhelming and full of distractions. The frog method can transform output if applied systematically:

Step 1: Identify your “frog”

For an aspirant, frogs are usually:

• Answer writing practice (most avoided but most crucial)
• Revising current affairs/GS notes daily (monotony leads to procrastination)
• Optional subject deep study (heavy, technical, but marks-deciding)

Step 2: Eat it in the morning

Start your day with 90-120 minutes of your frog task before touching phone, WhatsApp groups or even light subjects.

Example: 7 am - 9 am → Write 3 mains answers revise them.

By 9 am, you’ve already done the thing most aspirants push till evening (and then skip).

Step 3: Break down frogs

• Weekly frogs: Full-length mock test
• Daily frogs: At least 1 essay OR 2 hours on optional subject
• Micro-frogs: Reading The Hindu editorial making crisp notes (done before breakfast)

Step 4: Build discipline

Fix a frog hour (non-negotiable). Even if the world burns, your frog gets done.

Use a reward system → only after the frog is done, allow yourself tea, music or social media.

Outcome for a Civil Services aspirant using this method

Daily completion of the toughest, highest-value tasks → exponential improvement.

Mock tests and answer writing done regularly → big edge over procrastinating peers.

Builds exam temperament: if you can “eat frogs” daily, the actual exam pressure feels lighter.

Over time, frog-eating habit separates serious contenders from those who just “study all day but achieve little.”

Key takeaway

• Frog = most important hardest task
• Do it first = builds focus, removes procrastination, multiplies output
• For aspirants: Answer writing, mock tests, optional subject and revision should be treated as frogs
• Daily frog hour → biggest ROI in preparation, ensuring you outperform