You may or may not have heard of "eating the frog." It's one of those things that triggers the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon once you learn about it: Suddenly, everyone seems to be saying it, which is jarring, since it's a little graphic and evocative. Luckily, it doesn't mean you have to eat any frogs for real; it's just a way to refer to the productivity philosophy that says you should tackle your biggest, toughest task first thing in the morning.
What it means to "eat the frog"
“Eat the frog” means “do the day’s worst task as soon as you wake up.” It comes from a quote attributed to Mark Twain, though there are a few different versions floating around. (Lifehacker Editor-in-Chief Jordan Calhoun, for example, calls it “swallowing the frog,” which sounds more awful for reasons I can’t quite pinpoint.) Basically, what Twain is alleged to have said (though there isn’t much proof he really did) is that if you have to eat a frog, you should do it straight away in the morning so the worst part of your day is immediately behind you.
Regardless of the dubious origin of this colorful suggestion, it’s led to the creation of a popular self-help series by Brian Tracy and has evolved into shorthand for getting the hard stuff out of the way so you can focus on your other tasks.
What’s in it for you?
As Tracy explains on his blog, your “frog” is whatever your biggest, most important task is at any given moment: “It is the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.”
You don’t even have to eat the frog as soon as you wake up; you can simply make a conscious effort to get your hardest responsibilities handled before moving on to lesser ones. But you should try to get them out of the way early in the day. When I have to have an uncomfortable phone call, I schedule it for the earliest possible time in the day. When I have a project due, I try to wake up early to take care of it instead of staying up late. I can attest to the fact that I feel great throughout the day knowing that the worst thing I had to do is already done. This always makes it seem like whatever other tasks I need to handle are a breeze. They pale in comparison to the behemoth I knocked out in the early hours.
If no particular task is filling you with dread, you can replace something unpleasant with something important or resource-heavy. To determine which of your to-dos is most pressing—and, thus, is the frog you should eat—you can use a prioritization system like the Eisenhower matrix or the 1-3-5 method. In fact, the 1-3-5 technique helps you structure your day around the completion of one major task, three medium ones, and five little ones, making it ideal for frog-eating.
If you struggle with procrastination—whether cleaning your house or doing work for school or your job—or you find that you get all the little stuff done but don’t make sufficient progress on the big stuff, try eating the frog. Schedule the most despised tasks for the morning. Try going to the gym before work instead of after, blocking out your first half hour of work to respond to neglected emails, or scrubbing down the kitchen before making your morning coffee. Study for the test in your most difficult class before studying for your easier ones. Call your parents before calling your friends. You get the idea.
It's similar to the two-minute rule, which says you should jump on any and every task that takes fewer than two minutes the moment it occurs to you. Your frogs may take longer than two minutes, but the idea that you should simply tackle them instantly without deliberating or procrastinating is crucial. Get into the habit of just doing things.
Ideally, make your ranked to-do list the night before so you have nothing to think about when you wake up and you can get right to business. As you build this habit and mindset, at some point, moving on to the smaller activities—even if they’re important—will feel like a reward.
