# Eat the frog: how to start with the task you dread > Do the one task you are most likely to put off before anything else. Where the saying comes from, why starting with it works, how to pick your frog, and when not to. Source: https://priortasks.com/guides/eat-the-frog/ Last updated: 2026-11-05 "Eat the frog" means doing your hardest or most dreaded task first, before the day fills up with easier things. The frog is the one task you are most likely to put off and that matters most. Once it is done, the rest of the day has nothing hanging over it. ## Where it comes from The author Brian Tracy gave the idea its name in his book *Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time*. In the introduction to its second edition, the book credits the saying about eating a live frog first thing in the morning to Mark Twain. [Quote Investigator](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/03/eat-frog/) found no evidence that Twain said it, and traced an earlier form to the 18th-century French writer Nicolas Chamfort. ## Why it works **The dreaded task is the one that gets postponed.** In a 2007 meta-analysis of 691 correlations, Piers Steel found that task aversiveness was one of the strong and consistent predictors of procrastination, along with impulsiveness and low confidence in finishing (*Psychological Bulletin*). The harder you find a task to face, the more likely you are to find something else to do first. Doing it first removes that choice. **A decision made in advance beats a decision made in the moment.** Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran's 2006 meta-analysis of 94 tests found that plans saying when and where you will act helped people reach their goals more than setting the goal alone, in most of the comparisons (d = .65). Choosing your frog the evening before, with a time, is that kind of plan. **Done is quiet.** This part is experience, not research. A task you keep avoiding still takes up space in your head all day. Finishing it early frees that space. Nothing here shows that morning is the best time. The saying picks the morning because the day has not yet filled up. If your sharpest hours are later, eat the frog then. The rule is: before the easier things. ## How to run it 1. **The evening before, name your frog.** One task. Ask which task, if done, would make the day a success, and which one you are tempted to leave. 2. **Make it a bite.** If the frog is big, such as "write the grant application", define a first bite you can finish in one sitting: "outline the budget section". 3. **Give it a time.** Put it in your first slot of the day and treat it like an appointment. 4. **Clear the way.** Close your mail and chat. Fetch what you need before you start. 5. **Start with a timer.** Telling yourself you only have to work for 25 minutes lowers the bar to begin. The [Pomodoro technique](https://priortasks.com/guides/pomodoro-technique/) fits well. 6. **Stop when the bite is done.** Mark it done. If the frog is not finished, choose the next bite for tomorrow. Say you are a freelance developer with a late-payment call to make, a feature to build and thirty unread messages. If you start with the messages "to clear the decks", the call is still waiting at eleven and feels harder. If the call is your frog, it happens at 9:00, before anyone else's requests reach you. ## Mistakes to avoid - **Picking a vague frog.** "Work on strategy" cannot be started. Name an action you can see. - **Eating small frogs.** Tidying and quick replies feel like progress. If the task you picked takes five minutes and nobody dreads it, it is not the frog. - **Preparing instead of starting.** Organizing the desk, reading more, opening a new document: these are ways to delay. - **Choosing too many.** One frog a day. Two frogs make a day of dread. - **Taking on a frog that is too big.** A task that needs three days is a project. Split it, and eat one bite each day. - **Ignoring why you dread it.** Sometimes the dread tells you something. The task may be unclear, or it may not need doing. ## When it is the wrong tool - **When your morning belongs to other people.** On-call work, a shift, or a fixed schedule leaves no first slot. - **When the frog depends on someone else.** If you are waiting for an answer or a file, no amount of will gets it done. Put it on a waiting list and eat a different frog. - **When the dreaded task should not be yours.** Run it through the [Eisenhower matrix](https://priortasks.com/guides/eisenhower-matrix/) first. It may belong to someone else, or nowhere. - **When it spends your best hours on routine work.** A dreaded form to fill in does not deserve the hours you need for creative work. Do it in a low-energy hour, and set a time so it is not postponed. ## In Prior Prior has no frog feature. It has the tools to do it: - **Mark the frog.** Give the task priority P1. In any list, move to the row and press 1. Among otherwise equal tasks, P1 ranks first. - **Put it at the top of today.** On Today, open the menu of a task in **Up next** and choose **Pick for today**. The task is planned for today and ranks first. When Today has nothing pressing, it offers up to five open tasks to pick from. - **Decide the night before.** The evening wrap-up asks for **A note for tomorrow**: one line of up to 160 characters, such as "Tomorrow, start with the grant outline". It shows on Today the next morning. The wrap-up is offered an hour before your working day ends; Cmd K or Ctrl K and **Wrap up your day** opens it at any time. The [weekly review](https://priortasks.com/guides/weekly-review/) lets you choose up to three priorities for next week, planned for its first working day so they lead Today that morning. - **Cut it into bites.** Add a checklist of up to 100 steps, or sub-tasks, so the first bite is visible. See [Checklists](https://priortasks.com/docs/tasks/checklists/). - **Start the timer.** Choose **Focus on this task** in the task's menu. It picks the task in the Focus timer and opens the page. - **Give it a time.** With Pro, the planner prefers to put deep work in the hours you set under **When I work best** in **Settings → Planning**, and **Keep this time** locks the frog at the slot you choose. See [Time blocking](https://priortasks.com/docs/planning/time-blocking/). Read [Evening wrap-up](https://priortasks.com/docs/planning/evening-wrap-up/) for the full end-of-day routine.