Eat the frog 🐸
Try this simple time management tip to get things done
As it turns out, frogs can be a useful time management tip.
How so?
It goes like this:
“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”
(Why frog? We have Mark Twain to thank for that.)
The Frog is your most important task of the day. The One Thing you have to do no matter what. It might also happen to be the most daunting task, one you want to procrastinate as much as you can.
If your task is to eat the frog, do it first thing in the morning.
The more daunting and difficult a task is, the better to get it done as soon as possible.
The more you procrastinate on the task (“No way am I eating the frog now, I’ll just do it later!”), the more it’ll linger in your head throughout the day. You won’t be able to focus on other things because you keep thinking of the difficult task (“Ugh, I still have to eat the frog!”).
But if you choose to eat the frog first thing in the morning, you will feel relieved and more relaxed for the rest of the day.
And if you have to eat two frogs in one day, eat the biggest one first.
After you’ve eaten the biggest frog (a.k.a your hardest task of the day), the smaller frog will look easier. You have tackled the most difficult thing that day, so the less significant task won’t be as intimidating.
If you eat the smaller frog first, you’ll keep thinking of the bigger frog after, which doesn’t put your mind at ease at all (“Oh no, I still have to eat the big frog!”).
To sum up, here are five steps to eat your frog(s):
Decide what your frogs are
Decide which one is the biggest frog
Eat the biggest frog
Congrats, you’ve tackled the hardest task of the day!
Eat the second frog. Since you’ve already eaten the biggest frog, this one should be easier
Eat the Frog basically tells us to do our worst task first thing in the morning. That way, you can go on with your day knowing the worst of it is over.
Does Eat the Frog work? Frankly, it does. It’s simple, easy to remember, and rather humorous. We tend to remember things that we consider amusing.
Thanks for being here, and we’ll see you next week. Don’t forget to eat your frog today! 👋