eat the frog........or not?
Sometimes, there's a task. It's The Task. Maybe it's responding to an email, or paying your credit card bill, or opening up the dissertation file, or taking your trash out. Whatever it is, it's The Task that you know will make you feel better to do it, but also you would pay one bazillion dollars for it to be done and for you to not have to do it.
There is a lot of productivity advice that will say that when you have this task, you should do it first, and they call it "eating the frog." The idea is that if you have to eat a frog at some point during the day, it's better to just get that over with so you can eat more delicious things later without the dread of having to then also eat a frog. Get the hard, tough, maybe gross stuff out of the way, and everything else is crackers and La Croix, or whatever your favorite food is.
In general, this is good advice. It usually feels good to get The Task out of the way, and feeling good at the start of a work session is usually helpful for overall motivation. Once a hard thing is done, you have concrete evidence that you are, in fact, capable of doing hard things.
However, sometimes, you know you have to eat a frog so you just.....avoid breakfast, so to speak. You say that you're going to start with The Task, and then the minutes (hours) creep by and The Task hasn't been started, and the dread builds, so you don't do anything. You just wait to feel up to eating the frog, and keep waiting.
So here's my compromise, a workflow that balances getting tough stuff out of the way and also my own tendency to not always be my strongest in the morning:
When I end the workday, I identify one or two important tasks to start with when I am next at my desk, that will feel like wins to get done.
When I sit down for the next session, I check in with myself and see if I feel like I want to start with those tasks, or if something else has come up that I need to attend to.
If I am starting with a difficult task, I set a timer for one pom. If I haven't started the Frog Task in the first pom, I switch to something else.
I try the Frog Task again when I either a) feel up to it or b) after a hard break (like lunch, or a workout) when coming back to work feels like a new session.
It's great to eat the frog, and it is an awesome way to inject a bit of win right into the beginning of a session. But it isn't so powerful that you should sacrifice the rest of your work day ready to eat that frog. No one tool fits well for everyone, at every energy level, with every kind of task. So experiment with it, and learn when it works for you, so that you can use it on purpose!
systems audit
I’m a sucker for a new planner - just like I’ve always been a sucker for a new notebook, or new project management system, or new anything. I love tools, I love trying things out, I love learning new software and stretching my skills.
And more often than not, I see clients who are struggling with their organization/project management systems fall into one of two categories:
They stick with a system that isn’t working because they’re afraid to invest a bunch of time in something new.
They jump to the shiny new system anytime they experience a slowdown in their work, slowing their progress down even more.
Maybe you spend all day setting up your planner because that’s what you’ve always done. Or maybe you’re spending all day importing your to do’s into Asana, or Notion, or a bullet journal, and it FEELS productive. It feels like moving forward! And if the system is right, everything else will follow and you’ll never have another wasted moment, right??
But the cold hard truth is this:
The perfect system will not prevent you from procrastinating. It will not guarantee that you never miss a deadline again. It will not insulate you from stress, anxiety, or other yucky feelings. Even a perfect system won't fix the problem if it doesn't address the problem.
So it might be time for a systems audit - what are you using to keep track of your projects? Your to-dos? Your calendar? Your contacts? Your citations? What are you using, and is it working?
Here are my best tips for making sure you aren't over-investing in a system that isn't working for you, or doesn't address the core issue:
Set a time limit on how long you can reasonable experiment with a new system - when will you check in and evaluate how the system is working?
Limit how many hours you want to invest in setting up a new system - if it takes longer than that, maybe investigate systems with lower complexity.
Keep track of how long you spend managing the system. Does it reduce over time? Does it invite you to procrastinate or mess around perfecting it, rather than actually getting to work?
How do you feel when using it? See if it makes a difference - write smiley (or frown-y) faces on a post it note, or use a mood tracker - to determine if it adds or reduces yucky feelings.
Does it fit naturally into your routine? Or are you (after your set amount of time) going out of your way to use it even though it doesn't flow?
It's okay to abandon a system. It's okay to try something for a while and then realize it isn't for you. Get clear about what isn't working, and try something else. Because ultimately, the system isn't the one doing the work. You're doing the work. Give yourself credit, and feel good about only using the tools that make the work easier.