How Do You Increase Remote Work Productivity? Eat Your Frogs First

How did your morning start today? Do you feel anxious about all the tasks on your plate?

How many of those tasks have you put off for a few days, a week, or even longer?

What approach are you using to get that list down to zero before the end of day?

Here's the problem - If you wait until late in the day to get your list of tasks complete then:

1. You'll be adding extra anxiety to your day through procrastination.

2. You'll be less effective at getting whatever it is actually done, in a proper way i.e. your quality of work.

3. You might not get around to even completing what you planned to get done today, adding anxiety to your day, impacting your sleep, increasing the chances of poor eating choices, and if you drink, it might increase the amount of alcohol you drink tonight too. i.e. Get ready for a bad nights sleep!

So what's the solution?

Eat Your Frogs! And Eat them Early!

Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” For self-help guru Brian Tracy, this quote serves as an apt metaphor for effective time management. In his popular 2001 book Eat That Frog!

Eating Your Frogs in Summary Benefits:

Benefits Part 1: Less Stress or Anxiety - It's simple really. Putting off the things we need to get done, be it a work item, or a house hold item, will eat away at us during the day. Getting those items done early will reduce our anxiety or stress for the day.

Benefits Part 2: Productivity & Quality via Prioritizing - Some of your frogs, or items that need to get finished, are seriously important. They can't wait. Others are less important. Prioritize your list and do those first. Starting on the big items early will also increase your work quality and productivity, when you're at your most alert and sharpest.

Part 3: Eating Your Frogs Early, = Quality Time Back - By eating all those frogs early, you gain peace mind. And peace of mind matters. A lot. So later in your day, you can focus on other things, like YOU perhaps, like your very own passions. Like the things that give you optimized flow. Or time to work on the big audacious goal calling your name!

To Also Help Reduce Any Morning Anxiety or Stress:

Get a bullet list started in the morning, so that you're not focusing on those items before going to sleep.

And by not working on your list the night before, you'll also help increase the chances of a great nights sleep.

And, very crucial, you'll have that time to focus instead on your own internal dialogue, to see how your day actually went.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helped someone out there.

Until next time.

Stay inspired.

Goran Yerkovich