Breaking the huge work down into manageable tasks is what paralyzed me in the beginning of this  journey. This raises a lot of questions in my mind, i was wondering how  am i going to get into this and what particular technology am i going to dig into first?

In the process, I stumbled upon a book by Brian Tracy [Yes again 🙂 ], his book provides 21 methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more.

Brian’s main point is to start by the most daunting task/topic first in the beginning of the day / the journey

EAT THAT FROG (not the French frog legs :D)  start by eating the ugliest frog in the list and go from there.

The concept is similar to “how you eat an elephant…one bite at a time”. When you “eat your frog” you feel empowered, happier, energized and are more productive.

You need to get more done in a relatively short period of time ? here is Brian’s principales:

  1. Set the table: Decide what you want
    2. Plan the day in advance: Think on paper
    3. Apply the 80/20 rule: 20% of activity produces 80% of the results
    4. Consider the consequences: of your 20% activities
    5. Practice creative procrastination: put off things of low value
    6. Use the A B C D E Method continually: prioritize
    7. Focus on key result areas: concentrate on results you HAVE to have
    8. The Law of Three: ID and focus on the top three before anything else
    9. Prepare thoroughly before you begin: get set up to get things done
    10. Take it one oil barrel at a time: do it one step at a time
    11. Upgrade your key skills: sharpen your sword to do more and better
    12. Leverage your special talents: do things are good at wholeheartedly
    13. Identify your key constraints: get rid of bottlenecks, choke points
    14. Put pressure on yourself: think like you are on vacation tomorrow
    15. Maximize your personal power: work hard at your best times of day
    16. Motivate yourself into action: look at the positive now and move on
    17. Get out of tech sinks: tech stuff can be time killers
    18. Slice and dice the task: break it down, do one piece
    19. Create large chunks of time: to focus on certain things
    20. Develop sense of urgency: move fast on key tasks
    21. Single handle every task: start and fully complete most important task

Back to the IE blueprint, here is my technology related frog list :

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  1. Master all STP flavors
  2. IPv6 in depth 
  • IPv6 tunneling techniques
    • 6in4, 6to4
    • ISATAP
    • 6RD
    • 6PE/6VPE
  1. Tunneling
  • Implement and troubleshoot DMVPN [single hub]
    • NHRP
    • DMVPN with IPsec using preshared key
    • QoS profile
    • Pre-classify
  1. L2VPN 
  • Describe basic layer 2 VPN —wireline
  •  L2TPv3 general principals
  •  ATOM general principals
  • Describe basic L2VPN — LAN services
    • MPLS-VPLS general principals
    • OTV general principals
  1. Encryption
  • Implement and troubleshoot IPsec with preshared key
    • IPv4 site to IPv4 site
    • IPv6 in IPv4 tunnels
    • Virtual tunneling Interface [VTI]
  • Describe GET VPN
  1. Multicast 
  • Layer 3 multicast
    • Troubleshoot reverse path forwarding
    • RPF failure
    • RPF failure with tunnel interface
    • Implement and troubleshoot IPv4 protocol independent multicast
    • PIM dense mode, sparse mode, sparse-dense mode
    • Static RP, auto-RP, BSR
    • BiDirectional PIM
    • Source-specific multicast
    • Group to RP mapping
    • Multicast boundary
  • Implement and troubleshoot multicast source discovery protocol
    • Intra-domain MSDP [anycast RP]
    • SA filter
  • Describe IPv6 multicast
    1. IPv6 multicast addresses
    2. PIMv6

   7. QoS is my cutest frog 🙂

What is your frogs list, in the IT world or in life in general ? and why ?

Till the next time, enjoy your Frog 😉