How these adhesive amphibians boost productivity, motivation and flexibility
If one good thing came out of the pandemic, it was that COVID-19 gave people the freedom to modify their lifestyles, try new things, and change their diets. It gave me the chance to start a new diet (in productivity).
Frogs, anyone??
Well, not literally. Recently I’ve tried to Eat the Frog, first thing in the morning and with a cup of coffee. The idea of eating the frog means getting your biggest, ugliest task over with first. This way, you can rest easy knowing you’ve tackled the Big Chore and there is nothing that could go worse from there.
Eating the Frog is great for procrastinators who put off big projects and wait until the last minute. It is a relative of the Pomodoro Technique—because you break up your tasks by digestibility—but, instead of working in short periods over intervals of time, you do the task you’re dreading the most first. It is also great for people who find themselves overwhelmed with the number of tasks on their list and can’t decide where to start.
As an editorial assistant, I support my acquisitions editors with their list of titles and serve as a point of contact for authors, instructors, students and internal teams. On any given day, my to do list starts with at least five items and it only grows from there. Lately, I’ve been putting off creating a cover design brief for a new edition. Today I did it first.
Eating the Frog was surprisingly easy. For one thing, doing the Big Chore first gave me no time to dread it. Starting in the morning with high productivity levels also made it a breeze. Eating the frog meant I could spend the rest of the day feeling accomplished.
Trying this technique everyday makes it so much easier to build better habits. The feeling of accomplishment at 11 am alone is enough to keep me on this path.