I ATE A FROG? đ¸
You see I am someone who stands by the slogan âif itâs due tomorrow, then you should do it tomorrowâ. And so, I would procrastinate for days and then study all night before the exam, rather than finishing my preparation in time.
But today Mr. Mark Twain advised me to âeat a frogâ. Yeah I am sure you must be feeling like this kid Gavin right now:
What Mr. Twain wants to say is that if your job is to eat a frog then you should eat it first thing in the morning, and if your job is to eat two frogs then you should eat the bigger frog first. That way you can go about your day with the satisfaction of knowing that you have already dealt with the worst thing that could have possibly happened to you during the day.
Still confused? Frog here is being used as an analogy for the hardest most important task on your to-do list. Something that you are most likely to procrastinate on. And eating the frog first means prioritizing that task and doing it first thing in the day.
My frog for the day was to solve MCQs of logical reasoning for the preparation of an upcoming exam. This is the task that I have been procrastinating for a week now, and today I decided to eat this frog with the Pomodoro technique. It is a simple technique, that I have used many times to fight procrastination, and it has proven to be quite helpful for me. In Pomodoro, you divide your task into smaller tasks and then set the timer for 25 minutes (or 50- whatever works for you). In those 25 minutes you work on the task with focus, and when the timer rings, you take a small break for 5 minutes (or 10) and repeat.
Most people use the timer on their phone, but I avoid doing that because I know that as soon as I pick my phone up I am going to be more interested in taking a quiz that tells me âwhat type of bread I amâ, than studying. So I rather use one of these âstudy with meâ videos on YouTube.
Allow me just to begin by saying that once again, I discovered this technique to be amazingly successful. I did have some distracting thoughts and random urges to check my notifications but I was still somewhat motivated to stick to the timer and just complete the 25 minutes. Every time I had a thought I would remind myself that I will deal with it once the timer rings. And this way I was able to do more than a 100 MCQs in only an hour.
Who doesnât love a happy doggo, so I would continue to use Pomodoro to fight procrastination and definitely recommend this technique to everyone. It may or may not work for you because everyone is different but trust me, its worth trying.
