You Don’t Have to Eat a Frog to Be More Productive
A popular productivity technique encourages you to start your day by ” eating the frog “—that is, tackling the day’s biggest, most important task first, and then moving on to less important tasks. For many , structuring their to-do list around their biggest responsibilities is a good way to stay motivated and ensure top priorities are addressed in a timely manner.
But not every person works best this way, and even for people who typically enjoy solving difficult problems first, not every day is the same. If you’re intimidated by the prospect of tackling a big project first thing in the morning—every day or just today—there are other ways to organize your schedule. The following two rules may help you.
Start your day with the 10 minute rule.
The 10-minute rule was coined by time management expert Claire Evans, who included it in her list of “ anti-sadness hacks .” Here’s the gist: Think about activities that don’t energize or excite you, but that also don’t take up a lot of your time. I answer emails. Making a list of products. Organizing your desktop . Filling out documents. You can probably get through each one in 10 minutes or less, but it’s tedious.
So complete all your “10-minute tasks” now. The theory behind why this is beneficial is similar to that behind the concept of “eating the frog”: once these tasks are completed, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and be ready to take on additional responsibilities.
Of course, when you decide to eat the frog, you will feel motivated and proud, and it will be easier for you to do the easier exercises on your list, but this is not always the case. Sometimes you’re too bogged down to do anything big. Other times, doing something big will drain your energy and focus so much that those small tasks will seem much more important than they should.
In such cases, the 10 minute rule may be the best option. Doing simple tasks quickly first won’t drain your energy or use up all your resources, but will still give you a sense of accomplishment that will help you move forward.
The One Minute Rule is even simpler.
There is an even simpler method conceptualized by Gretchen Rubin in her book The Happiness Project . This is similar to the 10 minute rule, but not as structured. In short, if something will take you a minute or less to do, you should do it as soon as you realize it needs to be done.
This rule is useful for me when it comes to signing important documents – a simple task that I can do quickly, but often put off and then completely forget to do. I recently tried something new: As soon as I see a request (which can appear on my computer, iPhone, and/or Apple Watch), I stop whatever I’m doing, open it, quit Docusign, return it, and move on with my day. Nothing to come back to later and minimal disruption to my workflow now.
This is the essence of Rubin’s rule: if you can effectively cross an item off your list in less than 60 seconds, just do it. Yes, this is counter to other productivity techniques that emphasize limiting distractions and keeping your schedule tightly blocked . But in life, not everything always fits neatly into an ideal, pre-thought-out structure – just as it makes no sense to start each day with a mouth full of a metaphorical frog.