Eat the Frog: do the hardest important task first
Eat the Frog is a one-rule method: start the day with the task you most want to avoid. Paired with the Eisenhower Matrix, it tells you which task that should be.
By The Eisenhower Matrix To Do App team · Updated
What the Eat the Frog method is
The whole method fits in a sentence: each morning, do the task you are most likely to put off, before you do anything else. The frog is usually big, a little unpleasant, and important. Everything that comes after it feels easier, and the day is already a success by mid-morning.
Brian Tracy popularized the idea in Eat That Frog! (2001), borrowing a line often attributed to Mark Twain about eating a live frog first thing in the morning.
Why it works
Willpower and focus are usually strongest early in the day, before email, chat and meetings start making demands. Procrastinated tasks also carry a background cost: you keep thinking about them. Finishing the frog first removes that weight and protects the most important work from the urgency of everything else.
How to pick your frog with the Eisenhower Matrix
The Eat the Frog method tells you when to do the hard task. It does not tell you which task is the frog. The matrix does.
- Check Do First. If something there is due today and you are dreading it, that is the frog.
- If Do First is under control, look at Schedule. Pick the important task you have postponed the longest. A Schedule frog is the best kind, because it stops tomorrow’s emergencies.
- Never pick from Delegate or Eliminate. A frog you could hand off is not a frog. A frog that does not matter is just a chore.
Make the frog small enough to eat
“Write the report” is too big to start. “Write the first two sections of the report” fits in a morning. A good frog takes 60 to 90 minutes of focused work. If it takes longer, the frog is the first step.
A daily routine
- The night before, open your matrix and choose tomorrow’s frog.
- In the morning, do not open email or chat. Start the frog.
- When it is done, tick it off in the matrix and move on to the rest of Do First.
If you want the frog to have a protected place in your calendar, combine it with time blocking. To keep your frog list honest, add a weekly review. And if you are new to the matrix itself, start with the Eisenhower Matrix guide.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the name Eat the Frog come from?
From a line often attributed to Mark Twain: if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen the rest of the day. Brian Tracy popularized it as a productivity method in his 2001 book Eat That Frog!
What if my frog takes all day?
Then it is too big. Break it into a first step that takes 60 to 90 minutes, and make that step the frog.
Should the frog come from Do First or Schedule?
If Do First has a task due today, start there. Otherwise, choose the Schedule task you have been avoiding longest. That is where the method pays off most.