How I Eat Frogs for Breakfast 🐸

I used to start my day with email. Big mistake. Now I start with the one task I'm most likely to avoid, and it's changed how much I actually get done.

The idea comes from Brian Tracy's Eat That Frog. Your "frog" is your biggest, most important task, usually the one you keep putting off. His advice is simple: eat it first, before anything else gets a chance to distract you.

🎯 What Counts as a Frog

A frog isn't just anything on your to-do list. It's the task that would make the biggest difference if you actually finished it, and the one you're most tempted to avoid.

For me that's usually the thing with no clear next step. A messy piece of admin. A hard conversation I need to plan for. A script I know needs a rewrite, not a tweak.

💡 Why Mornings Matter

Willpower isn't unlimited. It drains as the day goes on, especially once notifications, meetings, and other people's priorities start pulling at you.

So the frog goes first. Not after email. Not after "a quick check of Slack." First.

📋 How I Actually Do It

• 🌙 I pick tomorrow's frog the night before, not the morning of. Deciding under pressure means picking the easy task, not the important one
• ✅ I write it down somewhere I'll actually see it. Vague intentions don't survive contact with a Monday
• 🍽️ I don't touch anything else until it's done, or until I've made real progress on it. No email, no Slack, no "just checking one thing"
• ⏱️ If the frog feels too big, I break it into one clear next action. The goal is starting, not finishing

✅ ❌ The A-B-C-D-E Trick

Tracy's other big idea is ranking tasks by consequence, not urgency. An A task has real consequences if it's not done. An E task has none.

This one reframes a lot of "urgent" requests. Just because something feels urgent doesn't mean it's actually an A. Half of what lands in your inbox is someone else's C task dressed up as your A.

👀 What Surprised Me

Motivation doesn't show up before the hard task. It shows up after you've started it. Waiting to "feel ready" is the trap. Action creates motivation, not the other way round.

So now, motivation isn't a prerequisite. It's a side effect.