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Eat the frog: how to do your hardest important task first

By the LeapSteps team. Updated . Facts checked .

To eat the frog means doing the one task you most want to avoid, and that matters most, before anything else on your list. This guide explains why that task keeps slipping, how to pick the right frog, seven steps, an example built from one goal, and what to do on the days the frog wins.

Why the hardest task slips to the end of the day

The name comes from Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog!, now in its fourth edition (Berrett-Koehler, 2025). The frog is your biggest, most important task, the one you're most likely to put off. The rule is to do it first, and if you have two frogs, to start with the uglier one.

The line behind it, that if you eat a live frog in the morning nothing worse will happen all day, is usually credited to Mark Twain. Quote Investigator found no good evidence he said it. The earliest version it traced is a remark about a toad in the writings of Nicolas Chamfort, published around 1795, and the Twain credit first shows up in 1988.

The method works because of how procrastination behaves. In a review of the research by Piers Steel (2007), tasks people find unpleasant were among the ones they delayed most. On an ordinary day, small easy tasks keep arriving, and each one is a fair reason to leave the frog for later. By the afternoon, later has run out.

Doing it first removes that choice. The unpleasant task gets your fresh hour instead of your tired one, and you stop carrying it around all day. Research on unfinished goals by Masicampo and Baumeister (2011) found that a goal left open keeps pulling at your attention, and that making a specific plan for it eased that pull.

Seven steps to eat the frog

Pick the frog the evening before, so the morning starts with a decision already made. It takes about ten minutes.

  1. Write down everything you mean to do tomorrow

    Get the whole list out of your head first. You can't spot the frog among tasks you haven't written down.

  2. Mark what matters most

    Ask which task would make the biggest difference if it were done by the end of the day. Tracy's ABCDE method helps: A for must-do tasks with real consequences, down to E for tasks you can drop.

  3. Pick the one you're avoiding

    Among the A tasks, the frog is the one you'd happily push to tomorrow. If you have two, pick the uglier one. That's the one that will cost you most if it waits.

  4. Cut it to a first step you can finish in one sitting

    "Write the report" isn't a task you can start at 9 am. "Draft the summary section" is. If the frog is too big for one session, eat the first bite, not the whole frog.

  5. Put it first on tomorrow's list

    Give it the top spot and a time, ideally before you open email or messages. Leave the tools for it open on your desk so the morning has nothing to decide.

  6. Start it before anything else

    Set a timer and work on the frog alone until it ends. Quick wins can wait an hour. They'll still be there, and they'll feel easier afterwards.

  7. Pick tomorrow's frog before you stop

    At the end of the day, note whether you ate it, and choose the next one. Skipped frogs go back to the top, not the bottom.

One goal, and the frog on today's list

Asking for a raise is a goal full of frogs: the work that makes the case is dull, and nobody chases you to do it. Here it is broken down until today's frog takes 20 minutes.

Example goal

  1. Long-termEarn a $10,000 raise at my review
  2. Mid-termDocument 5 wins with numbers
  3. Short-termWrite up the vendor-savings win

Today's frogPull the savings figures from last quarter's invoices, before email

We wrote this example ourselves. In LeapSteps you write the long-term goal in your own words. Tap Generate on the mid-term or short-term step and AI drafts three options; keep one, edit it or write your own.

The goal screen in LeapSteps with the AI draft as generated. Long-term goal: Earn a $10,000 raise at my review. Mid-term goal: Document three measurable wins that add $10,000 in value to my team, by Apr 26, 2027. Short-term goal: Draft a list of 5 measurable wins from the last 12 months, each with a dollar value, by Nov 6, 2026.

The screenshot is the app's draft for the same goal, captured for our guide on how to ask for a raise. Its first step, a list of five wins from the last 12 months, each with a dollar value, is a classic frog: important, a little tedious and easy to leave until the week of the review.

In LeapSteps the frog is a task linked to that step, with a due date, a due time early in the day and a high priority. A reminder can ring at the due time, and the Do tab's Focus mode pins that one task to the timer, so the first session of the day goes to the frog and nothing else.

Put your frog first in LeapStepsGet it for Windows

Your first week

Seven short tasks to try the method. The aim this week is to eat a small frog five mornings in a row, not to clear your whole list.

  1. List every task you've moved to "tomorrow" more than once10 min The tasks you keep moving are your frogs. Now you can see them.
  2. Mark each one A to E by what happens if it waits5 min Some old frogs turn out to be E tasks. Drop those.
  3. Pick tomorrow's frog and cut it to a 25-minute first step5 min A small first bite is easier to start than the whole task.
  4. Put it first on tomorrow's list with a time before email2 min The morning starts with a decision already made.
  5. Eat it: start a focus timer before you open anything else25 min One session on the frog alone, then the rest of the day.
  6. Each evening, note whether you ate it and pick the next3 min A skipped frog goes back to the top of tomorrow's list.
  7. At the week's end, look at which frogs you skipped and why10 min Usually the step was too big or too vague. Cut it smaller next week.

What the research says about the task you avoid

Three findings the steps lean on, and what LeapSteps does with each.

  • University of Calgary

    Unpleasant tasks get delayed most

    A review of hundreds of studies found that how unpleasant a task feels is one of the steadiest predictors of putting it off. That's why the frog goes first, before the easy tasks can crowd it out, and gets a high priority on your list.

    Read the review

  • New York University and University of Sheffield

    Decide when, where and how

    Across 94 tests, plans that spelled out when, where and how people would act had a medium-to-large effect on reaching their goals. That's why the frog gets a due time, and a reminder can ring when it's time to start.

    Read the review

  • Wake Forest University and Florida State University

    A plan quiets an unfinished goal

    Unfinished goals kept intruding on people's thoughts and hurt their work on other tasks, until they made a specific plan for them. That's why the frog is linked to a goal's next step, so you can see where it fits.

    Read the study

These studies test the ideas behind LeapSteps, not the app itself. Most of them studied students in a lab or a classroom. Checked October 28, 2026.

When the frog wins

Some mornings the frog stays on the plate. These are the usual reasons, and the next move for each.

  • You opened email "for a minute" first.

    Then the morning was gone. Keep messages closed until the frog's first session ends. A plan that names the moment works best when nothing else gets that moment first.

  • The frog was too big to start.

    "Finish the proposal" isn't a morning's task. Cut it to the first piece you can finish in 25 minutes, and add the rest as subtasks. Our guide on how to stop procrastinating covers the task you keep avoiding.

  • Your mornings belong to other people.

    Eat the frog at the first quiet block you have, even if that's 2 pm. The rule is first, not early. Time blocking helps you hold that block.

  • You skipped it three days running.

    Ask whether it's still an A task. If it is, make tomorrow's bite smaller. If it isn't, drop it on purpose. A task you've decided not to do stops pulling at you, as Masicampo and Baumeister found with plans.

Sources checked October 28, 2026.

Questions, answered

What does "eat the frog" mean?

It means doing your most important and least appealing task first, before anything else on your list. The phrase comes from Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog!, which calls that task your frog. The idea is that once the worst job of the day is done, the rest feels easier, and the task that matters most doesn't get pushed aside by easier ones. In practice you pick the frog the evening before, cut it to a first step you can finish in one sitting, and start it before you open email or messages.

Did Mark Twain say "eat a live frog"?

Probably not. The line about eating a live frog first thing in the morning is widely credited to Mark Twain, but Quote Investigator found no good evidence that he said or wrote it. The earliest version it traced is a remark about swallowing a toad in the writings of the French author Nicolas Chamfort, published around 1795. The Twain credit appeared in print in 1988, almost eighty years after his death. Brian Tracy's book made the frog version famous as a time-management method.

What if I have two frogs?

Eat the uglier one first. That's the book's own rule, and it makes sense: the task you dread more is the one most likely to slip if it waits, and the one whose delay will cost you most. If both are truly urgent, pick the one that someone else is waiting on, or the one that unblocks other work. Then give the second frog the next quiet block, not the end of the day, so it doesn't turn into tomorrow's first excuse.

Does eat the frog work if starting is the hard part?

It can, if the frog is small enough. For some people a hard task first thing is exactly what stops the day from starting at all. If that's you, keep the order but shrink the bite: make the frog a 10- or 25-minute first step, and start with a timer rather than a promise to finish. Some people do one tiny easy task first to get moving, then the frog. Our page on planning with an ADHD brain covers more ways to make starting easier.

Can an app help me eat the frog?

It can hold the plan, but it can't choose the frog for you. LeapSteps is our app. It's a to-do list where each task can have a priority, a due date and a due time, and link to a goal's next step. A reminder can ring at the due time, and the Do tab's Focus mode pins one task to the timer, so the first session of your day goes to the frog. If you'd rather not add an app, a paper list with the frog written at the top works on the same idea.

Put tomorrow's frog first on your list

LeapSteps helps you turn a goal into small next steps, so the task that matters most is first on your list each morning. LeapSteps is out now on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows.

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