Quote
“If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.”— Brian Tracy, in Eat That Frog! (2001) · Eat That Frog! →
Why it was said
Brian Tracy's frog is the biggest, most important task of the day, the one you are most likely to put off. This is his second rule, stated in the introduction before the twenty-one methods that follow.
What it actually means
When two important tasks compete, the instinct is to warm up on the easier one and arrive at the harder one tired and late in the day. Tracy reverses the order: the harder task gets the freshest hours, and the easier one becomes a reward rather than an excuse. The line is a rule about sequence, and sequence is most of what a day's productivity comes down to.
How to use it
- 1Each morning, name the two tasks that matter most and start the harder one before anything else.
- 2Treat the easier task as what you do after, never as the warm-up.