Eating the Frog....

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your ‘frog’ is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate about if you don't do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your day , your life and what you can achieve.

The first rule of frog-eating is: ‘If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.’

This is another way of saying that, if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else. Think of this as a ‘test.’ Treat it like a personal challenge. Resist the temptation to start with the easier task. Continually remind yourself that one of the most important decisions you make each day is your choice of what you will do immediately and what you will do later, if you do it at all.

The second rule of frog-eating is: ‘If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long.’

The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is for you to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of ‘Eating your frog’ before you do anything else, and without taking too much time to think about it.”

From 'Eat That Frog' by Brian Tracy