There was a 9 years old boy called Simon, one of his favorite meals was sausages and mash potato. The only problem with this meal was that it usually came with…broccoli.
Each time he faced with this meal, he would enjoy the sausages and mash potato and then toy with the broccoli in the hope that it would eventually get cold and he wouldn’t have to finish it. This approach transformed dinner into a long and drawn out process.
Then one day, his best friend whose name was Sean Sullivan came over to his house for the day to play. When it came time for dinner, mum made us sausages, mash potato and… broccoli.
As Simon started eating his sausages and mash potato, his friend Sean did something that completely amazed him:
He ate the entire broccoli first without touching his sausages or mash potato.
Simon couldn’t believe it!
He thought he was crazy until he got to the point where Simon was toying with my broccoli and realized that his friend was now enjoying his sausages and mash potato.
On that day Simon learnt a lesson that he never forgot and that he still remembers every day. The lesson was this:
When faced with a list of things to do, always do the hardest task first.
Here’s what this means in the real world:
Each morning when you check your daily To Do list, you will notice that some of the items on your list will be easy to do but will only have a relatively small impact on achieving your goals. Other items which are usually more difficult to do will have a much bigger impact on moving you forward.
One of the most effective ways to increase your overall productivity is to start your day by working on the difficult tasks that will make a real difference to your progress.
To do this, you must resist the temptation to "Just do the easy things first” because often this means that you keep putting off the high impact tasks that will really make a difference to achieving your goals.
Another advantage of ‘eating your broccoli first’ is that when you are feeling less productive at the end of the day, you are often still able to complete the easy tasks on your To Do list.
So today,
I’d like to encourage you to prioritize your To Do list based on the impact each item will have on achieving your goals and follow the example of my 9 year old friend and learn to eat your broccoli first.
