It’s best to eat your frogs in the morning. Do you eat frogs every day? I sure hope you do. By the way, these are not the ones that hop around on the ground. Let me tell you a little story.
My sister Alyssa
This is a real-life conversation I had with my sister Alyssa, probably about a month ago.
Let me set it up for you, it was getting close end of the business day somewhere around three o'clock.
Our primary form of communication is through Snapchat. Alyssa sent a snap of her daily to-do list with the little crying face emoji 😩on it because it was 3 pm.
The problem was out of her long crossed off list she had two tasks that she put off all day long.
I can almost hear you thinking what is the big deal, these two tasks were going to take a lot of mental energy.
At least, she thought they were going to take a lot of mental energy anyways, instead of getting them done she had put them off all day.
Then at three o'clock, when she wanted to have easy things to do, she had these two tasks seemly hard tasks yet to do.
Causing her to feel sad and upset with herself for procrastinating.
The question “Do you eat frogs?”
Of course, I couldn't help myself, call it the bossy, older sister syndrome, whatever.
You guessed it, I sent her back a video snap, telling her to eat your frogs first thing in the morning to not put off her hard task for the end of the day.
I went on to explain the metaphor in Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog suggests doing the hard things first thing in the morning and not put them off for later in the day.
Well, you need to know this came from a Mark Twain quote “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
That’s why you eat your frogs’ first things in the morning then you know that you're not gonna have to worry about them for the rest of the day.
It’s in the done
Take Alyssa’s story, for example, she procrastinates on those two tasks all day instead of getting them done. They hung over her head all dang day causing more anxiety and overwhelm than needed.
You see my point, right? When you procrastinate, and you put it off, and you put it off, and then you're oh crap, times up it’s due now.
Not eating your frogs’ first thing, leave you zero wiggle room. That’s when you might hit a snag if you don't do it now, then it's gonna be overdue. Isn’t that stress that could be avoided?
Here’s the bottom line you know exactly those tasks I'm talking about.
I think you’ll agree with me when I say, those tasks if you would actually get them done, you would feel so relieved. It’s funny that we procrastinate when the feeling of done is such a great reward.
My question to you is, what tasks are you putting off?
I can almost hear your push back, start small. Today take five minutes on a task that you’ve been putting off.
Because the thing is, sometimes with those daunting tasks that we have on your list, if we take time to start it, then it feels a lot easier.
Still need that extra push, if you have a virtual assistant on your team, have them start it for you.
What most people don’t realize, starting can be the hardest part. If someone else does the starting you just have to tweak it.
Even if you redo the whole thing, doesn’t matter, because you're not having to start from the beginning.
Starting a task for my small business owners is a trick I learned early as an online business manager. I’ll start it by getting it organized and delegate out to the team.
Guess what happens, once the team gets it started, it is much easier for the owner to take it across the finish line to get it all done.
Tell me what are you going to work on?
What is the one task that you've been putting off that you're going to spend five minutes on today? I'd love to hear about it.
Tell me in the comments below. Send me an email.
I appreciate you. Enjoy your day.
Little Side Note
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
Mark Twain
✁ Just a Snippet
Here is just a snippet of the important points, you know for the skimmer in you. 🤪
What types of projects or maybe long overdue tasks do you have on your list?
My sister, Alyssa, and I had this conversation the other day. She sent a snap of her to-do list with a crying face, it was 3 pm and she had two tasks that she had put off all day.
Of course, I couldn’t help myself call it the bossy older sister syndrome.
I replied with a video snap telling her she needs to Eat The Frog right away in the morning and to not put off her hard tasks for the end of the day.
I went on to explain Brain Tracy’s book Eat The Frog and that 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.”
When we put off those tasks and actually get them done, boys those are the ones that I think are the most rewarding.
Do you have any tasks you’ve been putting off?
For a quick win, today spend 5 minutes on a task that you've been putting off.
Hit reply and tell me about it, I’d love to hear what you’ve been working on.