Why you really should eat the frog

How tacking the worst jobs first can make you a high performer

By Thea O'Connor

Do you ever get to the end of day and feel as if you haven’t achieved anything? The truth is you probably did accomplish quite a few items on your to-do list, but one remains untouched. It’s the big, hairy, important, but hard thing you know you need to do, but didn’t go near. It sits there in the back of your mind, casting a shadow over all your other achievements.

A common piece of productivity advice is to do as Mark Twain once suggested: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

This saying inspired the title of a time-management book, Eat That Frog, by Brian Tracy. Tracy claims that developing the habit of tackling your hardest, most challenging task first thing each morning, is key to becoming a high performer. here's why:

1. Mental alertness is greatest in the morning

According to both sleep science and Chinese medicine, our mental alertness typically peaks between 9 o 10 am. This varies slightly according to what time you rise.

“Tasks that require a high degree of accuracy and discrimination are best done in the early part of the day,” says sleep researcher Professor Leon Lack, School of Psychology, Flinders University. “That’s when our alertness and accuracy are highest, due in part to overnight rest and a peak in the level of the hormone cortisol.”

2. Willpower declines over the course of the day

One of the most replicated findings about willpower is that we have only so much of it, and it decreases over the course of the day. We use it up making decisions, managing our emotional reactions, and exercising self-control to make ourselves do the tasks we need to.

Any act of self-control leaves us with less willpower for completely unrelated challenges. This seemingly accounts for the "morning morality" effect, where ethical behaviour is highest in the morning and lowest in the afternoon, when people are tired and their mental resolve, weak.

So the longer you put off eating your frog, the fewer reserves you’ll have to help you buckle down.

3. You start the day with a win

You will feel fantastic when you accomplish your most critical work for the day, by mid-morning. The added bonus is that when we achieve small wins, our pre-frontal cortex – the area of the brain that we use for willpower – will begin firing neurons. When it does this, it increases our capacity for focus and perseverance, which will serve us well for the rest of the day.

Don’t let your frog spoil your day! Get it in the bag first thing and enjoy the satisfaction that will surely follow.

Practical tips

•         Before you leave the office at the end of the day, decide on your most challenging or important task for tomorrow. Write it down so you’ll see it first thing in the morning. 
•         If you can, gather together the material you'll need to get it done and have that out, too. Even read a bit of material beforehand to allow some back-burner thinking over night.
•         In the morning, put in place some distraction-minimisation measures if needed and let your colleagues know when you will next be available.