Don't Eat the Frog First: Build Your Own Perfect Calendar

Productivity experts tell you to “eat the frog first.” In other words, do the worst thing immediately, get it over with, and then move on to what truly matters. Oh, and do it first thing in the morning—the earlier, the better.

But what if we ignored them?

What if you could do what you wanted, when you wanted, and still get it all done... but, you know, not hate yourself, your job, your life while you are doing it?

Here is my radical suggestion. Don't eat the frog first. Screw the frog. Let's do something different.

Imagine taking control of when and how you spend your time. What activities do you want to prioritize? When do you do your best work? Who do you want to see? How much do you want to sleep? Start from scratch with an empty calendar, and then start adding in what you would consider to be a perfect day, week, month, even year. This becomes the template for how you schedule your time.

(By the way, I talk about this in Wonderhell , credit to my dear friend Clay Hebert and his Perfect Calendar system.)

Let’s say you are at your most creative in the morning after you’ve exercised, so you start by putting the Exercise and Work blocks in your calendar first.

Then you chunk off some time midday for Lunch and a little catch-up on whatever landed in your inbox that morning.

You allocate afternoons for Meetings, because your creative energy is lagging by then but your social energy is ready to be unleashed.

Now, when a request comes in for your time, you stop looking for any random open window, and instead choose an available slot that best fits the energy demanded of you. And you no longer squander your creative morning time in trying (and failing) to get to Inbox Zero.

Perhaps you aren’t a morning person, though. If that’s the case, here’s a radical suggestion: just move your routine to later in the day. Turn that Miracle Morning into your own version: Extraordinary Evening.

Can’t get after it with the 5 a.m. club? Start a 5 p.m. club. What works for you is what works for you.

So, The One Thing to do this week is ditch the frog. Seriously. Scrap the hustle gurus’ “one-size-fits-all” morning routines and build your own perfect calendar. Focus on what truly works for you, when it works for you. Whether you’re an early bird, a night owl, or something in between, your time is yours to own. So, take a moment this week to craft that ideal schedule. Make space for what lights you up, when you’re at your best. Forget about what productivity “should” look like and focus on creating momentum because momentum beats frog-eating every day of the week.

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