"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
Intro
What a meaningful quote with a great use of figure of speech by Mark Twain. I had no idea who Mark Twain was so I did some research. According to Wikipedia, it seems that Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Clemons and his pen name was Mark Twain; he's also apparently the father of American literature. Anyways, I hope that was some interesting facts to start of this post. Now, I will continue with my breakdown of what I think this quote means and how it can be applied to my life.
Meaning of the Quote
First, I will explain the general meaning of this quote. The quote means that we should do what we need to do first even if it's something we dislike and get it done ASAP and if there's two things or more things that need to be done well you need to choose the one that is more important. I want to break down this quote into all the different key words.
This Is A Huge Pile Of Shit Work Documents That I Don't Want to Do
Anyways back to cracking down this quote. I want to look at the keywords "job" "eat frog" "first thing in the morning" "eat biggest one first". Job is something important that most of us need to do to live because we need to earn money. Eat frog is a figure of speech for doing a difficult task because most people I feel would not enjoy eating a frog. First thing in the morning is relating to the urgency. Morning is what comes first in our day hence the quote is telling us to do the important tasks ASAP. The second part of this quote mentions two frogs which is related to having two tasks or more tasks. It tells us to choose "the biggest one first" because that task is the more important one.
Applying Quote + Eisenhower Matrix To My Life
Let's go through something I feel would be great to learn for those that don't know about this. Maybe we do know in a sense but not the theory behind it. At the same time, this will also help visually explain how it can apply to my life.
I drew this diagram on Canva
This is the Eisenhower Matrix. This is something I actually learned sometime during my university days. It basically breaks down tasks into 4 different zones: Important Urgent, Important Not Urgent, Not Important Urgent and Not important Not urgent. Important Urgent are the tasks that must be done now. For example, I may have a presentation to present tomorrow, the slides would need to be done now. Important Not Urgent would be like I need to have a business meeting once a month but it's the beginning of the month so there's still time. This is important but I can schedule it to do later since it's not something that must be done immediately. Not Important Urgent are the tasks that need to be done but doesn't necessarily need to be done by me. For example, if I was a boss and needed to pay for something, I could have my PA or finance department handle it. Something not important and not urgent are things that are usually just for entertainment like if I was watching television.
This can be applied to real life as I mentioned above using some examples of tasks that go to a certain zone. Now to connect this matrix to the quote; the quote is basically telling me to focus on the Important Urgent tasks. I need to be able to differentiate the importance and urgency of tasks and then tackle them accordingly and one way to do this is through the Eisenhower Matrix. With this, I'll be able to have more positive results in my life!
