Ben Wilson

May 13, 2021

Todoist: Eat the Frog

Todoist has a productivity quiz that helps your search for the more effective productivity system. Mine is Eat the Frog. I'm capturing this here since World is easier to find things in and document than my other systems. ;)

Eat the Frog follows the book of the same name. It is good for procrastinators or those who cannot make progress with tasks due to distractibility or competing needs. I am mildly ADD, so this is me. Eat the Frog is simple.

Find ONE "Most Important Task" that can be done in 1-4 hours, and Finish That; subdivide longer tasks to 1-4 hour chunks.

While some systems scale to 3 or 6 tasks, ETF stays with the most valuable task. This gives us a sense of accomplishment, which for ADDers helps to feed the dopamine. It fights the urge to build complicated lists that feeds procrastination. If the task takes longer than four hours, subdivide it into manageable chunks.

There's a concept I learned from Getting Things Done, which focuses on Projects and Tasks. Rather than keep a bunch of project lists, just state the task in the format "ACTION, for PROJECT." So, if you are working on a business plan, perhaps a task would be "Complete Competitive Market Research for Business Plan." Then if you need to, write the next step in that project when you finish the current step.

Bullet Journal can be helpful in keeping track of the various frogs. But, the important thing to remember with BJ is not to to be strict. It's a framework intended to help you find your framework. I had a friend who kept a single sheet of paper folded into eighths. That was his BJ, refreshed daily.

-- 
Ben 
In tenebris solus sto

About Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson, the brains behind the Postal Marines sci-fi saga, is a history buff with a soft spot for human nature and religion. After serving in the US Army, he's now stuck in the exciting world of IT project management, where he feeds off his customers' frustrations. Ben shares his Northern Virginia home with his wife, three kids, and two vicious attack cats. Don't worry, he didn't sell his oldest to the Core (although he may have considered it). His eldest has flown the nest and started a family of his own.