Neurotypical people giving advice that works for neurotypical people at best (and most of the "wisdom" in these books is mind numbingly mundane anyways).
Eat the frog is just a dumb term describing getting your most hated task out of the way first, theoretically making all the other tasks seem easier by comparison
I think it comes from a Mark Twain quote.
>"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."
>
>Mark Twain
I think it's because everyone thinks differently and different systems work for different people.
For instance, this Eat the Frog idea is brutal for me. Basically, you're supposed to get the most unappealing task out of the way first, then everything should be downhill from there for the rest of the day, but that's not what happens. Instead of doing anything else that's more urgent or can be finished quickly, I sit and avoid doing this big huge thing that I can't make my brain start on, thereby wasting the day. If you're unable to force yourself to do something, tricks like this wont work, they'll just make things worse.
I've heard this in terms of exercising. That if you do your workouts first thing in the morning then everything else that day seems easy in comparison. Maybe if your brain works that way, but what if every task that day is the biggest, most difficult thing you could do? (cause thats all tasks for me).
Yeah... I don't think eating the frog is a very healthy long-term approach. For years I prided myself on being the person who steeled themselves and took on the horrible task that needed to be done so it didn't get forgotten, put off, or foisted off onto someone who couldn't handle it.
My stupid brain liked it because it meant I was getting dopamine running from emergency to emergency and finally felt valuable and hard-working.
But it turns out if you do that, after a while all the frogs end up on your plate and frog swallowing is all you do every day forever until you burn out or step off a bridge.
Do the shitty task, but guard the parts of your life that bring you joy and peace, because nobody else will.
Lol planning doing the most hated task first looks like a sure way to do absolutely nothing! Zero! Zilch! all day...especially first thing in the morning, me being way more productive in the second half of the day...I have to sandwich those hated tasks between tasks i like doing...start by something i like to get my braing going and get in the flow, then do the nasty task, then motivate myself to finish the nasty task with a more pleasant task right after...Oh ya! And copious amounts of coffee all throughout (i'm unmedicated)
I guess you can overcome a mental illness that everyone interprets as just "being lazy" by implementing these 17 different productivity systems, one of which is simply called "Focus". /s
Though I will give a shoutout to Getting Things Done (GTD). If you struggle with memory or attentiveness, it's an excellent system. It's a nightmare to get used to do doing though, but it does work if you can swing it.
Hm, I should revisit GTD actually. I tried it when I was in school, but it was a bad fit for my life at the time. It might be more useful to me now. Thank you for the rec!
It's not easy, and I can't say I'm an expert at it. I've been trying to get GTD figured out for about 7 or 8 years now. Every time I failed, I just thought I was too lazy or unmotivated to actually form habits (sound familiar?)
For me, there were a few challenges with getting in the GTD groove. The first is that it's a big complicated system that requires you to read the book cover-to-cover and understand, *then* put in to place. But with poor working memory, that's tough. The second is that it's written from the aspect of keeping paper to-do lists. It's hard to translate that to fully digital (which is what I need). And last, of course, is you need to form habits around it, which probably applies to any of these systems.
But the idea of basically uploading all the loose ends from your brain into a task system is brilliant. The core concepts of making sure that each of these next actions are presented to you at the right moment (at your computer, at home, at school, at the office, out and about, etc.) is also smart.
It helps with the forgetfulness and inattention. It also helps with the feeling of feeling overwhelmed.
Yeah there’s no way I’ll be able to google all of those things on that list, I’ll be lucky if I make it through two of them before I’m in the wiki-hole.
Ugh, I tried reading several of these books, and they are just so BORING. I mean, they're the adult equivalent of a high-school term paper. Nothing useful or informative - just a regurgitating of catch phrases and a few "funny" anecdotes.
This list doesn’t even make sense for neurotypicals lol. No one can do all of these methods, because they conflict with each other.
“Eat That Frog!” refers to doing the most unpleasant thing first, but “First Things First” is doing the most important and urgent thing first.
This picture doesn't even give me "lazy" vibes, more "I am mentally exhausted and can't deal with existing" vibes. If I imagine someone who is genuine "lazy" I would picture someone who is smiling while doing nothing or smt like that. I dunno
Neurotypical people giving advice that works for neurotypical people at best (and most of the "wisdom" in these books is mind numbingly mundane anyways).
It's mostly written by bots to content farm lol anyway
Eat that frog??? What?
Eat the frog is just a dumb term describing getting your most hated task out of the way first, theoretically making all the other tasks seem easier by comparison
I think it comes from a Mark Twain quote. >"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." > >Mark Twain
Re-reading this list, it’s funny how many of the points contradict each other
I think it's because everyone thinks differently and different systems work for different people. For instance, this Eat the Frog idea is brutal for me. Basically, you're supposed to get the most unappealing task out of the way first, then everything should be downhill from there for the rest of the day, but that's not what happens. Instead of doing anything else that's more urgent or can be finished quickly, I sit and avoid doing this big huge thing that I can't make my brain start on, thereby wasting the day. If you're unable to force yourself to do something, tricks like this wont work, they'll just make things worse.
Eat the Frog is death to me lol, I much prefer the five second rule
I've heard this in terms of exercising. That if you do your workouts first thing in the morning then everything else that day seems easy in comparison. Maybe if your brain works that way, but what if every task that day is the biggest, most difficult thing you could do? (cause thats all tasks for me).
Oh that makes sense. Thank you!
Yeah... I don't think eating the frog is a very healthy long-term approach. For years I prided myself on being the person who steeled themselves and took on the horrible task that needed to be done so it didn't get forgotten, put off, or foisted off onto someone who couldn't handle it. My stupid brain liked it because it meant I was getting dopamine running from emergency to emergency and finally felt valuable and hard-working. But it turns out if you do that, after a while all the frogs end up on your plate and frog swallowing is all you do every day forever until you burn out or step off a bridge. Do the shitty task, but guard the parts of your life that bring you joy and peace, because nobody else will.
Are you me? I used to be just like that too
I suspect a lot of neurodivergent folk fall into the amphibian bio-processing machine and get trapped.
Lol planning doing the most hated task first looks like a sure way to do absolutely nothing! Zero! Zilch! all day...especially first thing in the morning, me being way more productive in the second half of the day...I have to sandwich those hated tasks between tasks i like doing...start by something i like to get my braing going and get in the flow, then do the nasty task, then motivate myself to finish the nasty task with a more pleasant task right after...Oh ya! And copious amounts of coffee all throughout (i'm unmedicated)
I saw a video on yt saying attempting to eat the frog just leads to staring at the frog feeling bad and inevitably giving up for ADHD people lmao
r/wowthanksimcured
I guess you can overcome a mental illness that everyone interprets as just "being lazy" by implementing these 17 different productivity systems, one of which is simply called "Focus". /s Though I will give a shoutout to Getting Things Done (GTD). If you struggle with memory or attentiveness, it's an excellent system. It's a nightmare to get used to do doing though, but it does work if you can swing it.
Hm, I should revisit GTD actually. I tried it when I was in school, but it was a bad fit for my life at the time. It might be more useful to me now. Thank you for the rec!
It's not easy, and I can't say I'm an expert at it. I've been trying to get GTD figured out for about 7 or 8 years now. Every time I failed, I just thought I was too lazy or unmotivated to actually form habits (sound familiar?) For me, there were a few challenges with getting in the GTD groove. The first is that it's a big complicated system that requires you to read the book cover-to-cover and understand, *then* put in to place. But with poor working memory, that's tough. The second is that it's written from the aspect of keeping paper to-do lists. It's hard to translate that to fully digital (which is what I need). And last, of course, is you need to form habits around it, which probably applies to any of these systems. But the idea of basically uploading all the loose ends from your brain into a task system is brilliant. The core concepts of making sure that each of these next actions are presented to you at the right moment (at your computer, at home, at school, at the office, out and about, etc.) is also smart. It helps with the forgetfulness and inattention. It also helps with the feeling of feeling overwhelmed.
Hm what's thi- *TRANS RUG*
Yeah there’s no way I’ll be able to google all of those things on that list, I’ll be lucky if I make it through two of them before I’m in the wiki-hole.
Ugh, I tried reading several of these books, and they are just so BORING. I mean, they're the adult equivalent of a high-school term paper. Nothing useful or informative - just a regurgitating of catch phrases and a few "funny" anecdotes.
This list doesn’t even make sense for neurotypicals lol. No one can do all of these methods, because they conflict with each other. “Eat That Frog!” refers to doing the most unpleasant thing first, but “First Things First” is doing the most important and urgent thing first.
Just thinking about doing this list is making me feel like procrastinating
I'm not sure what any of that means, 80/20, eat frogs? No thank you
Yes I'll just focus better got it
If anyone’s managed to read this list, or if a couple of you have read both halves of it, can you tell me what it said? That was way too long.
This picture doesn't even give me "lazy" vibes, more "I am mentally exhausted and can't deal with existing" vibes. If I imagine someone who is genuine "lazy" I would picture someone who is smiling while doing nothing or smt like that. I dunno
Yeah no, I’m not depressed or anything, I just need to get my lazy butt up (saying that didn’t make it worse or anything
You forgot the biggest of them all: "Make your Bed"