Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Eat The Frog First


Mark Twain once said, "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."  Now you may be wondering what this has to do with organizing.  Let me explain.

How many of you have that one thing on your to-do list that you just hate doing?  For me it's folding laundry.  I hate to fold laundry and will procrastinate doing it the entire day until it's all wrinkled and I have to throw it back into the dryer.  I need to tackle this job first thing in the morning and get it out of the way.  Once that is done, the rest of the day seems easier.

There is always something on the never-ending to-do list that we just hate doing but, of course, it still needs to be done.  By getting the most dreaded task out of the way, you set your day up for success. You will no longer spend your day dreading this chore and will find that you will accomplish more of your to-do list because you have eliminated the biggest reason for procrastinating.

Conversely, you should save the task you enjoy doing the most until the end of the day.  If you consider weeding the garden as your personal quiet time, then leave that task to later in the day.  Since you enjoy doing it, the chances of it getting done are much higher.

Now what do you do if you have two chores on your list that you dread doing?  Well, Mark Twain has an answer for that too.  "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 seems to have an unnatural fascination with eating frogs.


What is the one chore that you hate doing the most?  Can you get it out of the way first thing in the morning?  Check in tomorrow because I am going to relate frogs to organizing in a whole new way! 

1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete