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“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.” – Mark Twain

You might have heard this quote from Mark Twain before. The “frog” in this quote isn’t an amphibian. It represents a hard task. So, if you have a hard task to do, it’s best to work on it first thing in the morning. And if you have two hard tasks, do the biggest one first.

We’ve been talking about productivity lately. So far, we’ve discussed the Pomodoro Technique, the 3/3/3 Method, and the Eisenhower Matrix. Today, I want to talk about ‘eating the frog” based on the quote from Twain. 

Twain aside, a lot of people use this strategy. They go into the office and get the hardest work done first. Then, the rest of the day is easy (at least by comparison). Also, if they misjudge the time it takes to get the hardest work done, they have all day to finish instead of starting something later in the day and then realizing they’re not going to be done before the close of business. This strategy can be helpful in managing time. 

It can also be helpful when we have a task that we don’t particularly like … but we still have to do it. Honestly, we all have parts of our job that we just don’t get excited about. Happens to everyone. So, getting those tasks out of the way early in the day could be exactly what we need. Then we can finish the day doing the stuff we enjoy more. 

There are a couple of downsides to the frog strategy. The first is identifying what do to first. Meaning, what’s the hard task? It could be helpful to ask the same questions that we discussed in the Eisenhower Matrix article: 1) Is it urgent? And 2) Is it important? That might help to identify what to do first. Then you could spend the rest of the day working on maintenance tasks (like we discussed during the 3/3/3 article). It always feels good to cross a bunch of items off the to-do list. 

But for me, the biggest challenge with the frog strategy is how the operation works. True story. Years ago, I worked at a hotel where my boss came in really early in the morning to walk around and see what’s going on. If I was in my office, he would stop by and offer to buy me a coffee. Of course, I would go. It was uninterrupted time with him. We could chat about ideas, etc. That time with him was very helpful in getting buy-in for projects. But it also meant that it cut into my “do the biggest task first thing in the morning” time. 

So, as you’re thinking about using the “eat the frog” approach to getting work done, I think it’s important to keep it in context. We can’t just ignore the operation. Maybe this approach is best for times when we have a pressing deadline and we announce to the team, “Hey, I need to get this done first thing tomorrow so I’m not going to be available except for emergencies.” Or something like that. You get my point. 

As we’re going through this productivity series, one of my takeaways is that productivity can be achieved many different ways. It’s possible one productivity method would be good for getting routine tasks accomplished (like the 3/3/3 Method) and another one for those big projects with a deadline (like eat the frog). That means being familiar with multiple ways to get stuff done. And when we’re faced with a task, ask ourselves, “What’s the best way to get this done?”. 

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby somewhere off the coast of Miami, FL
The post Productivity Series [Part 4]: Get Hard Tasks Done First appeared first on hr bartender.
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13/05/2025 – 12:07 /Sharlyn Lauby
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