Eat the Frog

THINK ABOUT IT

Don Meyer, Ph.D.

Eat the Frog

“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning that will probably be the worst thing you do all day.”

Mark Twain

Over the years I have written thousands of letters. Some of them have been letters of congratulation for a job well done. Others have been letters of thanks for generous gifts or for services rendered. Some letters clarify or even correct reality. Some are just to stay in touch with friends from over the years.

I love signing letters but the task of writing them is one of the hardest things I do. I may have a long “to do” list but if on that list is the writing of letters, I always struggle with getting that task done. For some reason, that task hangs over my head until it is finished. But once my letters are written, I feel as though the weight of the world is off my shoulders. Oddly enough, I love handwriting personal cards.

The words of Mark Twain can help people like me, “If you eat a frog first thing in the morning that will probably be the worst thing you do all day.” I am not sure I would label writing letters as “eating the frog,” but if I wrote them first thing in the morning, many of the other things I had to do would probably seem easy. And as someone said, “If you have to eat a live frog, it does not pay to sit and look at it for a very long time.”

This topic is obviously all about procrastination. Craig Childs suggests four categories in which we can put tasks to reduce our tendency to procrastinate: 1) things you don’t want to do and actually don’t need to do; 2) things you don’t want to do but actually need to do; 3) things you want to do and actually need to do; 4) things you want to do but actually don’t need to do.

Anyone who agrees with Mark Twain’s “eat the frog” would prefer to do the hard things first. Brian Tracy wrote “Eat That Frog; 21 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.” In it, Tracey also says that if you have two frogs, eat the uglier one first. That way the second one won’t seem quite as bad. If we have hard and very hard things to do, he would advise us to do the hardest first.

Additionally, Tracey says that the longer you look at the frog, the harder and harder it will be to actually eat the frog. So the best idea is to eat it as fast as you can and, with your hard tasks, get them over with as soon as possible.

One reviewer said that he was only halfway through the book and he already felt like he was three or four times more productive. This kind of practical help must be the reason the book has sold over 1.5 million copies and has been translated into 42 languages. I would also mention that this book is not all built around the cute frog metaphor but rather it is filled with an organized source of extremely helpful material.

There are those, however, who prefer doing the easy things first and leaving the harder things until last. But I would agree with the majority of people who would agree with Twain and Tracey.

Years ago I read a sermon by Elton Trueblood titled “Learn to Love the Difficult.” This resembles part of the Cadet Prayer from the U.S. Military Academy, “ … Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won.”

Successful people don’t try to do everything but they do focus on the most important tasks and make sure they get done, even if they are hard.

Think about it.

Dr. Don Meyer is President Emeritus of the

University of Valley Forge, Phoenixville, PA

Connect via dgmeyer@valleyforge.edu

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