Why You Should Eat a Frog First Thing in the Morning
You may have heard of “eating the frog.” It’s one of those moments that triggers the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon once you learn about it: suddenly, it seems like everyone is talking about it, which is shocking because it’s such a visual and evocative phrase. Fortunately, it doesn’t mean you have to actually eat frogs; it’s simply a way of describing a productivity philosophy that advocates tackling the biggest, most challenging task first thing in the morning.
What does it mean to “eat a frog”?
“Eating a frog” means “doing the hardest task of the day as soon as you wake up.” It’s a quote attributed to Mark Twain, though there are several different versions. (Lifehacker editor-in-chief Jordan Calhoun, for example, calls it “swallowing a frog,” which sounds even more terrifying for reasons I can’t quite pinpoint.) Essentially, Twain supposedly said ( though there’s no evidence he actually did this ) that if you have to eat a frog, you should do it right away in the morning so the worst part of your day is behind you.
Despite the dubious origins of this colorful sentence, it led to the creation of a popular series of self-help articles by Brian Tracy and has become shorthand for how to get rid of difficult things so you can focus on other tasks.
What will you get out of this?
As Tracy explains on her blog , your “frog” is whatever your biggest, most important task is at any given time: “It’s the task you’re most likely to put off if you don’t do anything about it.”
You don’t even have to eat the frog right after waking up; you can just consciously make an effort to tackle the most difficult tasks before moving on to less important ones. But you should try to do this early in the day. When I have an annoying phone call to make, I schedule it for the earliest possible time. When I have a project to tackle, I try to get up early to tackle it instead of staying up late. I can attest to feeling great throughout the day knowing that the worst thing I needed to do was already done. This always makes everything else I need to do feel like a piece of cake. They pale in comparison to the beast I knocked out that morning.
If no specific task terrifies you, you can replace the unpleasant with something important or resource-intensive. To determine which of your tasks is most urgent—and therefore the frog you should eat—you can use a priority system, such as the Eisenhower Matrix or the 1-3-5 method . In fact, the 1-3-5 method helps structure your day around completing one major task, three medium-sized tasks, and five smaller ones, making it ideal for “eating frogs.”
If you struggle with procrastination—whether it’s cleaning the house, studying, or work—or find yourself getting small tasks done but not making significant progress on the big ones, try “eating a frog.” Schedule your least favorite tasks for the morning. Try going to the gym before work instead of after, setting aside the first half hour of the workday to answer forgotten emails, or tidying up the kitchen before making your morning coffee. Study for your hardest exam before studying for easier ones. Call your parents before calling your friends. You get the idea.
This is similar to the two-minute rule , which states that you should tackle any task that takes less than two minutes as soon as it comes to mind. Your “frogs” may take longer than two minutes, but the idea that you should simply tackle them immediately, without hesitation or procrastination, is crucial. Get into the habit of just getting things done.
Ideally, create a to-do list ranked by importance the night before so you don’t have anything to think about when you wake up and can get straight to work. As you develop this habit and mindset, eventually, moving on to smaller tasks, even if they’re important, will feel like a reward.