# Eat the frog

> A prioritisation method that starts the day with the most important or most difficult useful task.

## What it means

Do the hardest or most important task first. Popularised by Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog! . The saying is often credited to Mark Twain, but Quote Investigator (verified, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/03/eat-frog/) “found no substantive evidence that Mark Twain spoke or wrote the expression” and traces the family of sayings to Nicolas Chamfort, published circa 1795. When it suits and when it doesn’t (energy, dependencies).

## A practical example

A founder drafts the difficult investor update before opening routine email, because it matters more than the easier queue.

## Put it into practice

- Name the concrete situation before applying the label. Eat the frog is useful only when it changes a choice, boundary or next action.
- Make the state visible: write the owner, time, source or stopping condition down instead of relying on memory.
- Review what happened. Keep the part that reduced ambiguity and change the part that added ceremony without helping the work.

## How it relates to Plexii

One thing now shows the single most pressing open desk, picked by urgency, importance and due date (/help/home-widget-one-thing-now).

## Sources

- [Quote Investigator: the frog quotation’s history](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/03/eat-frog/)