Be Productive: Eat the ugliest frog first

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

― Mark Twain

Here the frog is your worst task that is important but you want it to get delayed or avoided.

The idea is to complete your most difficult task first. Normally we try to avoid/delay these tasks that require us to go out of our comfort zone. But to be productive, just start your day with the most difficult task and get it done quickly. Once it’s done, you will be motivated enough to complete the remaining tasks because you know that nothing worst is left for today.

You may also like: Decision Making: Hands Off Before Hands On

If You Have To Eat Two Frogs, Eat The Ugliest One First

There is a situation when you have multiple tasks of equal priority to complete. In this scenario, you must start with the hardest, biggest and the most important task first. You must make a habit to start immediately and complete the task as quickly as possible, before moving to the next one.

As we do this practice in our daily life, we should also adopt this approach in our professional life. Below I have mentioned few examples that reflect the above idea.

• If you have to take several medicines at the same time (God Forbid), you take the bitter one first. Once you take it, the other feels less bitter.
• From my personal experience, its very difficult to wake up for prayer (Fajr). Mainly during winters. I shouldn’t say like that, but its hard to get out of the bed. I know its important, and I can’t escape from it. Whenever I tell myself that I will wake up after 5 minutes, most of the time, I miss the prayer because I fall asleep again. So, what I do? As the alarm rings; I just wake up, get out of the bed and leave my comfort zone with any delay. Once I succeeded doing so, I know that now it’s easy for me to go for ablution(wadu) and offer prayer. Because I have already achieved the most difficult task; which is to get up and get out of the bed.

Conclusion

When you complete your worst task first, you feel accomplished, and achieving the remaining tasks becomes so easy.

As, when you accomplish something your brain releases dopamine. This chemical is often known as the “feel-good” neurotransmitter because it does just that-it makes us feel good. This special feeling motivates us to multiply your productivity. And it will help you to get more work done than 90% of the people in your office.

Share your thoughts! About what’s the most difficult task you achieve first, to stay productive? If you couldn’t complete it, what’s the reason you are avoiding or delaying it?

This article is originally published my personal blog.