Eat That Frog to Boost Productivity

Eat that frog first thing in the morning, and get your biggest productivity done. Here's why it works, and a guide to eating the frog with Taskable.

Have you ever had big, important, complex tasks looming over you? And instead of tackling it, you work on smaller, more manageable, less critical tasks instead? Rather than procrastinating,  why not eat that frog first thing, then move on with your day?

That’s precisely what eat that frog productivity method is all about.

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day - Mark Twain

Eat the Frog productivity method

The Eat the Frog productivity method is pretty simple - simply do that most important, hardest task first thing in the morning. Generally, mornings are when you have the most energy, and before your day can get away from you.

By eating the frog, you start your day getting past the most challenging thing you’ll need to do all day, but also the most essential item in your task list. Hopefully, this gives you some sense of relief as you move through the rest of your day.

View a list of some other productivity methods

Alternatives to Eat the Frog

Eat the Frog is a particularly excellent productivity method for procrastinators who are at their best in the morning. However, it doesn’t work for everyone - myself included.

If, like me, you need to build some momentum to start your day, you can try ordering your task list with small, fun items to get you going in the morning and plan your frogs for once you’ve built momentum. That way, you tackle these complex tasks once you are in flow. This method only works when you take the time to plan what your priorities are each day.

Learn how we order our priority list for flow

Ivy Lee Method is similar to Eat the Frog. Each evening you write down the six most important tasks you have to do the next day, then order those by priority. The next day, you work on the tasks one at a time and don’t move on to the next until you are finished.

Learn more about Ivy Lee and how to prioritize your tasks at work

Eat that Frog with Taskable

If you’d like to try to Eat the Frog with Taskable, here’s how you can do it.

First, create a label called 🐸  Frog, and apply it to any task in your list that could conceivably be your frog for the day.

As you plan out future days, or your week, make sure there is one frog for each day.

Then be sure to timebox how much time you’ll need for that task first thing in the morning.