Eat a Frog to Beat Procrastination

Procrastinating With Your To-Do List
Many times people hesitate to do something because they don't like a particular task. It might be difficult or boring for them. So they procrastinate.Sometimes a single task on our to-do list can make us procrastinate and we may end up not finishing most of the things on that list.

A simple tip, in such cases, could be to do the worst task on your to-do list first whenever you begin. Now this may seem counter productive. But the fact is that once your worst task is finished, you will usually find it easier to complete the remaining tasks.

The Benefits of Doing the Worst Task First:
When you are starting out to do something, you will likely have more energy. So it should relatively be easier to motivate yourself in the beginning to do any unpleasant or difficult task rather than later.

And when the difficult or unpleasant task is over, you will be on cloud nine. The rest of the activities in your list might seem like a treat to you when you consider that a huge mountain is out of the way.

You might actually enjoy doing the remaining tasks and finish them also with a lot of fervor and energy. Finishing off an unpleasant task might have done wonders to your confidence level and also give you a huge psychological advantage while going after the rest of the to-do list.

Eating a Frog for Breakfast
Imagine that you eat a frog or something equally terrible daily for breakfast before leaving for the office. How terrible would you really feel? Would any other event during that day have such an effect on you as eating that frog??

By eating that frog early in the day, you are setting yourself up to face whatever unpleasant things might happen later on. You may not be as bothered by these things as they are not so terrible as eating a frog. You have already experienced something much more terrible for the day and other less terrible events might not have that much negative impact on you.

Similarly, doing and finishing off any dreadful task from your to-do list can make it much easier to finish off the remaining tasks with ease, confidence and enthusiasm!

I am not saying to really eat a frog. It means facing your fears head on and doing at thing first which you dislike the most.

Try out this simple technique and see whether it really works wonders to defeat your procrastination habit or not.

I have written a similar article here - Do the Worst First

Make a Worst To-Do List:
You might be in the habit of making a "to-do list" of activities daily. If so, you can separate the really difficult or dreaded tasks from that list and make a separate list of "worst to-do list" which includes all the difficult activities. Now you can devote certain times of the day to do activities from this list only - like once in the morning and evening etc.

Focus on 1 thing at a time as multitasking introduces stress as well as reduces productivity. Focusing completely on a single thing can help you complete it faster and better.

Finally, don't forget to check out this resource - End Bad Habits in 21 Days. It can be a useful resource if you want to eliminate bad habits including procrastination habit.

You can even check out more of my articles on procrastination, productivity etc. here - Procrastination Beaters

Don't forget to leave your feedback and suggestions. Let me and others know how this technique or other such techniques are working for you.