Is Avoiding Difficult Tasks And Doing Easy Tasks First Less Productive?

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Procrastination is astir apt nan biggest detriment to our productivity. Conventional contented dictates that nan champion point you tin do is make that procrastination constructive. When you don’t consciousness for illustration doing 1 task, usually 1 that requires a batch of will- aliases brainpower, you do another, usually little labor-intensive task.

Recently, though, accepted contented has been challenged pinch thing Penn State refers to arsenic “pre-crastination.” After doing a bid of studies successful which students prime up and transportation 1 of 2 buckets, researchers theorized that galore group for illustration to return attraction of difficult tasks sooner alternatively than later. That mentation poses nan mobility of whether this pre-crastination aliases nan much wide acknowledged constructive procrastination is much effective.

Here is simply a look astatine whether group should do difficult tasks early aliases later connected to execute maximum productivity.

Doing Easy Tasks First

The Pros

One of nan hardest parts of moving is conscionable getting started. Constructive procrastination eases this hardship, because moving on easy tasks requires a smaller intelligence aliases beingness committedness than if you tackled difficult tasks firsts.

If 1 of nan foremost deterrents to your productivity is simply getting going, it makes a batch of consciousness to prevention nan difficult tasks for erstwhile you’re successful much of a groove.

The Cons

If you eat a frog first point successful nan morning, that will astir apt beryllium nan worst point you do each day. — Mark Twain

On nan surface, location don’t look to needfully beryllium immoderate disadvantages to doing easy tasks first. However, successful Eat That Frog, nan book writeen by Brian Tracy challenges that.

Based connected nan supra quote from Mark Twain, Eat That Frog encourages avoiding procrastination, moreover if that procrastination is constructive. Tracy wants you to “eat that frog,” i.e. do your difficult tasks quickly because nan longer it’s connected your plate, nan harder it will go to do nan point you’re dreading. If you person a wont of dreading things, Eat That Frog makes a coagulated statement to clasp disconnected connected your easy tasks until later successful nan day.

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Doing Difficult Tasks First

The Pros

Brian Tracy postulates successful Eat That Frog that if you do your difficult tasks first, your other tasks won’t look truthful bad. After all, aft you eat a frog, moreover thing unappetizing will look downright delectable.

Tracy besides recommends that, if you person to eat two frogs, you should eat nan uglier 1 first. The metaphor is simply a very easy measurement to get your caput astir nan caller conception of pre-crastination.

If each of your tasks look somewhat torturous to you, you mightiness beryllium capable to easiness nan symptom by getting free of nan ugliest “toads” arsenic quickly arsenic you can.

The Cons

The superior disadvantage of doing your difficult tasks first is astir apt that it will make it particularly difficult to get started connected your workday.

A batch of group aren’t precisely astatine their highest capacity mode erstwhile they participate nan office. They request to easiness into nan workday, possibly person a cup aliases 2 of java to stimulate them.

If that’s you, doing your astir difficult tasks first would astir apt beryllium a costly mistake. Hold disconnected connected “eating those frogs” until you person nan willpower and fortitude to choke them down.

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Conclusion

Should you do easy aliases difficult tasks first? It seems for illustration a cop-out to opportunity that it depends connected nan person, but sometimes that’s nan honorable answer, and that is decidedly nan lawsuit here.

Hopefully this article helps pass you of what type of worker you are, offering clues to whether you autumn into nan constructive procrastination aliases pre-crastination camps. Good luck connected your pursuit of maximum productivity!

More Time Management Tips

  • How to Prioritize Right successful 10 Minutes and Work 10X Faster
  • Why Do I Procrastinate? 5 Root Causes & How To Tackle Them
  • What Is Procrastination and How to Stop It (The Complete Guide)

Featured photograph credit: Courtney Dirks via flickr.com

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