Why Eat the Frog Is Setting You Up to Fail

You've probably heard the productivity advice that says you should tackle your hardest task first thing in the morning. Eat the frog, they call it. Get the big, heavy, ugly thing done before you do anything else, and the rest of your day is downhill from there.

Sounds great. Except... what happens when life lands in your lap before you ever get to the frog?

If you've been trying this method and quietly wondering why it's not working for you, this episode is going to be a relief. I couldn't make it work either. And in this episode, I'm sharing exactly why this advice, despite its good intentions, may actually be causing more harm than good for women living full, real, chaotic lives. Plus, I'm giving you a better way to think about it that will finally get your most important work moving.

What You'll Learn:

• The sneaky pattern that happens when your morning gets hijacked and you can't do the hard thing first
• What happened when I tried to use Eat the Frog to write my book and why it completely fell apart
• The one question to ask yourself instead that changes everything
• How to find the real window in your week where focused work will actually stick

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Megan 🩷🐝

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Transcript

0:00

All right, friends, if you've ever heard the advice called eat the frog and you've been trying it and you feel like it's not working for you, you are not alone. And today that's exactly what we're going to be talking about. I want you to understand why this advice may actually be causing more harm than good, and then share with you a strategy that you can use that kind of gives the same intent as the eat the frog, but will likely produce much better results. Welcome to the Work Life Harmony Podcast. Guess what? You don't have to feel constantly overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed out. There is another way. When you have the right systems and tools to plan and manage your time, you can live a life of harmony. If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed, this is the show for you. Hey friends, welcome back to Work Life Harmony. Today I want to do a deep dive in one of the productivity hacks, if you will, that people talk about called eat the frog. And I really want to help you understand why if this is not working for you, you're not alone. I can't eat the frog either. Before we get into that discussion, let's take a couple seconds here and really talk about what do I mean when I talk about eat the frog? So it is a term, it's kind of a productivity hack tip, et cetera, that people will share. And the intent with the eat the frog method, what they're saying is that when you are analyzing everything that needs to get done for the day, the idea is that you're supposed to pick the hardest thing, the thing that maybe you've been avoiding, right? And you do that first. So you're structuring the day to get those big important things done first. That's called eat the frog. This is kind of similar to when people will teach, identify your top three and do those first. All right. So in theory, what this is talking about is it is saying, let's do the hardest thing first and get it out of the way. Now, before we dive into this, if you have a friend that you know is struggling with all things time management, organization, productivity, maybe they are out there, you guys have been sharing tips and suggestions with each other. You definitely want to share this episode with them. Because if they've been trying Eat the Frog and have not been successful with it, this episode is really going to help them. And guys, if if someone shared this with you, stay tuned because this is going to free up a lot of things for you. All right, eat the frog. Again, in theory, this is a great approach, right? On paper, it makes sense. Get it out of the way, get that early morning energy, right? Applied to the thing that might be hard or feel heavy or whatever, so that it's behind you for the rest of the day. I'm not saying that the theory of this is bad, right? This advice is great. The problem is for so many women, myself included, this advice simply isn't doable on a lot of my days. A lot of my days, my calendar, the reality of my life, running a business, being the kind of default parent, primary caregiver, et cetera, means that I don't have the luxury of being able to eat the frog. My calendar, my life, my reality does not support me doing the hardest or most important thing first. Here's what subtly happens when we are constantly trying to implement eat the frog, but we find out we can't. All right. There, there's a couple key things at play here that's really, really, really important to understand. So, first is what does this cost you when you are trying to implement eat the frog? Okay, so maybe you wake up, you're analyzing what needs to get done for the day, you're like, all right, this is the hardest thing. I'm gonna do this first. And then life happens, right? First thing in the morning, and you're not able to do it. Well, what you are subconsciously doing when you are so glued to this eat the frog approach is if you can't do it first thing in the morning, you simply don't do it at all that day. And you wait until the next day. You're like, okay, I couldn't do it this morning. I couldn't give that early morning brain power to it. So I'm gonna try again tomorrow. And then guess what happens tomorrow? Life happens tomorrow. And so it gets punted to the next day. And this starts to happen over and over and over again because what you're doing is you're waiting until the perfect morning, the morning that supports the eat the frog kind of methodology to actually dig in and make progress on that project. And so what happens is day after day after day, this thing doesn't happen. And guys, I experimented with this in my own life and I found myself in this trap. Now, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you've likely heard me talk about the fact I'm currently working on a book. And when I first really started diving into like heavy writing time once the book deal was in place, I was like, this is gonna be a perfect thing for eat the frog. I know I write best in the morning. And so I thought, great, this is gonna be what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna pick, you know, a chunk of time multiple times each week where I am going to wake up, I'm gonna open up the document, right? And I'm gonna eat the frog. I'm gonna get my writing time in before doing anything else. And I tried this for many, many weeks. I put it on the calendar, I did the appointment, I did all the right things. And what continually kept happening was life kept landing in my lap during the time that I was supposed to be eating the frog. Right. Suddenly it was the week where, you know, there was a school cancellation days or late, you know, late days because of snowstorms. I can vividly remember two mornings where it was the morning where the dogs got into something the day before and now they're barfing in the house. Right. There was the morning where it's just the morning chaos, right? It's the morning where you wake up and then there's an emergency. It just felt like the harder I tried to restructure my life around getting that eat the frog writing time done in the morning, it did not happen. And I kept doing this. Well, I'll try again tomorrow. I'll try again next week. And then I was not making progress. After three, four weeks of this, I was like, I'm not making the progress that I need to on this book. All right. So this is very subtle, and often we don't recognize that this is happening if we constantly are trying to force this morning time for our most important work. Instead of being fixated on this eat the frog mentality, all right, here's what I want you to ask yourself. Instead of saying, How can I eat the frog in the morning? What I want you to ask yourself is where in my week can this frog, if you will, this project, this time, get dedicated, focused work. Now you are giving yourself the flexibility to look at the reality of your days and weeks to say, realistically speaking, where in my week can I see this happening? Right. And for some of you, that might be Tuesdays. Tuesdays are great. Maybe it's Tuesday morning, maybe it's Tuesday afternoon. For others, it might be, you know what, my weeks are really weird, but my weekends, I have a lot of quiet time or I have time that I know I can put focused time to. For some folks, they really rock in the evening. It's like, oh, evenings is my place, especially if you've got young kids and they go to bed really early. You might be like, God, actually, evenings is a really great time for me to do that. The point is, there is no wrong answer. The only wrong answer is if you're trying to implement something that doesn't work with your life. And our brains are uniquely different. For me, when I was first really diving into research around productivity, I was drawn to the stuff that talked about doing things in the morning because that's naturally how I'm wired. And I've been wired that way for a long time. Even in college, I would be waking up early and I just and I go to bed early. That's how I function. However, I have family members that are polar opposite of me. Their best brain power, like their most creative thinking is in the evening, right? So if you're trying to force a system in that goes against your entire like makeup in your natural rhythms, you are going to continue to not make progress on that frog. And it's important to understand, hear me on this. The goal isn't to eat the frog in the morning. The goal is to keep the frog moving, progress. It doesn't, you don't have to attach a timestamp to it. So let's talk about now how do we actually go about eating this frog if we're not going to say it has to be done in the morning. And I'm sorry if by the end of this episode you're tired of hearing me talk about frogs. I promise we'll never talk about them again. All right. So step number one, identify your frog by name. All right. What is the thing that you are like, I need dedicated time to make progress on this? So back to my example, I need time to be writing my book. All right. Now, the second step of this is instead of going, well, here's when I think I'm going to do it, right? I want you to open up your calendar and look at the next week, look at the next seven days. Look at the reality of your life and ask yourself, we're going to start small. Where do I see one hour that I feel fairly confident will not get hijacked, will not be interrupted by something else, that you can put some good boundaries in place. Where do I see one hour to make progress on this? And then you're actually going to put the appointment on your calendar with yourself. All right, you're not writing it on a task list, you're creating the appointment. Okay. And then the third thing is because we're starting small, right? I want you to finally make movement on something that's been sitting there for a long time. The third part is I want you to be realistic about what counts as progress during that hour. So back to my book example. I am not going to create an appointment for myself in one hour and say, I'm going to write a chapter. That's unrealistic. I'm not writing a chapter in one hour, but maybe real progress is hey, I'm refining the story that's going into chapter three. Notice I didn't even say complete because maybe it won't be, but progress would be getting in there and doing some refinement. Okay. So we want to make this something that is actually achievable. And then the final part of this is give yourself the flexibility to separate the frog from the morning hours. Okay. It might align late morning for you. Okay. Maybe it's afternoon, maybe it's evening. So give yourself permission to think through how are you going to be successful in the movement of the frog instead of forcing it into a time that simply is not going to exist. Back to my book example. After I think it was three or four weeks of realizing progress is not happening, I had to take a step back and say, what's going on here? And I realized I know I write best in the morning. So I was trying to force that morning time in. But I'm at a stage of life where that just is not going to be very realistic for me, both from a tactical standpoint of all the things that I juggle, but also there's a subtle nuance with how my brain works. I can't get into flow state with writing without first knocking out some low-level tasks. And when I say low level, I mean stuff that would not be considered eat the frog. All right. I get anxious if I know I haven't processed my email and I haven't done some of my bookkeeping tasks and some of these other things that take about 45 minutes to an hour of my day. All right. So I kept trying to get in there to quote, eat the frog, but my brain was somewhere else wanting to knock out some of those other things that don't take all that long, right? That aren't super brain power, but they quiet my brain so that I can get in flow state of writing. And I recognize that and I recognize the reality of my calendar. So I took a step back and said, okay, well then how can this be realistic for me? Right. And I was like, you know what would be amazing is if I could have a good chunk of quiet time on Saturdays and Sundays. And I don't quote work on the weekends, like business work. But I was like, man, that feels so much heavier than me trying to force something into my week. So do I get up and eat the frog on Saturday and Sunday? No, I don't. I get up. I have my morning routine that I honor because that quiets my brain. We usually go on a long walk with my dogs, sometimes, usually on the weekends, my husband and I do that together. And then I'm settling in for several hours of true focus time. And that is not, by definition, eating the frog. It's also not me doing it every single day. Because that's another subtle thing, right? This eat the frog is kind of like you got to touch it every single day. Maybe not. I would much rather be touching it two or three days a week in a way that sets me up for success, as opposed to every single day going, couldn't do it this morning. So let me try again next tomorrow. Couldn't do it then. Let me try again tomorrow. All right. So the principle I love, hey, let's let's get intentional, good focused time on that frog that you're wanting to make progress with, but absolutely feel free to detach it from this idea that it has to be in the morning. Okay. So the real kind of productivity question that any woman living a very, very full life should be focused on isn't how do I optimize my morning to get the most important stuff done? Instead, it's how do I protect time on my calendar, right, for important work in a way that's actually going to set me up for success to complete it. And when you embrace that, now you're setting yourself up to have meaningful time to make meaningful action on your frog. All right. So here's your homework for this week. So it's very simple. I want you to identify one frog, look at your calendar for the next seven days, find a time that is most likely going to succeed with having the time that you need. And then you're going to make progress on it. That's it. Quit trying to force other people's timelines into your life if that realistically does not work for you. And again, I promise we are now done talking about frogs. I will switch back to my usual language in our episode next week. But I hope here that for those of you that have been trying to force this into your lives are now feeling that sense of freedom of realizing the intent is good, right? But it may just be the execution of this concept of eating the frog that needs a little bit tweaking. All right, friends, have a great day, and I'll see you or hear you back here next week. Getting on top of all things, time management, organization, and productivity doesn't have to stop just because this episode is over. If you are feeling overwhelmed, your calendar's out of control, or you're just running in a race that will never end in terms of your to-do list, I have great news for you. I have an app in both the app store and Google Play called Pink Bee. And it is chop full of small but incredibly powerful training to help you get out of overwhelm. It includes my signature Ditch the Overwhelm training and introduction to my time management framework, built specifically for women. So open up either your app store or Google Play, do a search on the word PinkBee, all one word, and download the app to get started today.