Hop To It…That’s Brian Tracy’s advice in the book “Eat That Frog!”
His advice is to just start with those unpleasant tasks that must be done (the frogs) right off the bat and get it over with. With that done, you can move on to the more pleasant gems (but don’t get distracted by the butterflies or gnats!) This is sometimes also known as the worst first method. We might be less likely to waste time procrastinating.
While “Do the hardest task first” is often advocated as a good strategy, there are some drawbacks. Maybe just a few easy wins to get going would be okay? There is also the sandwich method: start with a high priority task you want to do, followed by one you don’t want to do. This has the advantage of making you look forward to beginning your day, rather than dreading it.
Here’s a short video to watch about it.
See also: Start Your Day at the Top and It’s All Downhill From There at timemanagementninja.com, Eat That Frog at Asian Efficiency, and Dreading Your Next To-Do? at success.com.
Check out the Overcome Procrastination and Get Motivated Board at Pinterest…but not until you’ve eaten that frog!
Hi there
Thanks for the mention!
I wrote an article about the whole Eat the Frog thing over at http://2006takecharge.blogspot.com/2007/01/feb-2007-eat-frog.html which I will now go in and link to the form!
Thanks again.
Thanks for the post. Another frog-eater post here, FYI:
Some thoughts on “Eat that frog!” by Brian Tracy
http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/10/some-thoughts-on-eat-that-frog-by.html
[…] Plan It – I have been enjoying reading this blog. The Hop to It post has a link to a ‘frog eating form’ from Marcia, which looks like a great way to […]
[…] Hop to It! […]
[…] don’t want to do. (I prefer this sandwich method, but there is also the worst first aka the Eat That Frog […]
[…] you like to Eat That Frog? Or does the Sandwich Method work better for […]
[…] Start with important work: first a high priority task you want to do, followed by a high priority task you don’t want to do. (This sandwich method is ideal for some, but others prefer the worst first aka the Eat That Frog method) […]
[…] Grit List, and if they must be done, commit to doing them anyway. Some say that it’s best to tackle those things first to get them out of the […]