{"id":783,"date":"2023-01-16T21:17:42","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T01:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/do-the-hard-things-first\/"},"modified":"2023-01-16T21:17:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T01:17:42","slug":"do-the-hard-things-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/do-the-hard-things-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the Hard Things First"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n\"Do<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want to do the hard things. We like to do the enjoyable things. If something isn\u2019t enjoyable, then we at least want it to be easy.<\/p>\n

Yet, the enjoyable things often aren\u2019t very helpful. And the easy things usually don\u2019t provide a lot of return for our time.<\/p>\n

The ability to make yourself do the hard things is a big determiner of how successful you\u2019ll be.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Squats are hard. Leg extensions are easy. Guess which is more effective for strengthening your legs.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Cold calling expired listings is hard. Holding an open house is easy. Guess which is more effective for making money as a real estate agent.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Sweeping a floor is easy. Scrubbing a floor on your hands and knees is hard. You already know which is going to clean your floor more effectively.<\/p>\n

Consider these ideas:<\/h3>\n

1. You have more energy and focus early in the day.<\/strong> It\u2019s easier to do challenging things earlier in the day. You\u2019re more effective at 9:00 AM than you are at 3:00 PM. Attack the hard thing when you\u2019re fresh. It\u2019s only going to be more challenging later in the day.<\/p>\n

2. You can spend more time on the hard thing.<\/strong> If you wait until later to do the hard thing, you might run out of time to complete it. Since the hard thing is often the most important thing, you should spend enough time on it to complete it.<\/p>\n

3. The rest of the day is more enjoyable.<\/strong> If you have something unpleasant hanging over your head all day, you just can\u2019t enjoy the day as much. Get the hard thing off your plate, so you can enjoy the remainder of your day.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cIf it\u2019s your job to eat a frog, it\u2019s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it\u2019s your job to eat two frogs, it\u2019s best to eat the biggest one first.\u201d \u2013 Mark Twain<\/p>\n

4. It builds self-esteem and confidence.<\/strong> Everyone else avoids the hard things. Be the person that attacks them. You\u2019ll feel great about yourself and know that you can do anything that needs to be done.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Your potential increases greatly when you can reliably get yourself to do unenjoyable tasks.<\/p>\n

5. It can help your career.<\/strong> Once you\u2019re known as the person that can do the hard things, you\u2019ll be highly respected and considered reliable. Most people have excuses for not doing the hard thing.<\/p>\n

6. Avoid thinking too much about it.<\/strong> It\u2019s best to get started on your hard thing without spending too much time thinking about it. It\u2019s like eating the frog. Just eat it. You don\u2019t want to stare at it all day. The frog only becomes bigger and uglier over time.<\/p>\n

7. Decide what your \u201cfrog\u201d is for the day.<\/strong> The night before, determine what your most awful task is for the next day. Schedule it as early in the day as possible. When the time comes, attack that frog with everything you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

Some tasks are just unpleasant. There are even unpleasant tasks which provide little value but must be done. It\u2019s best to get your unpleasant tasks done as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

If the unpleasant task is high value, it deserves to be accomplished first. If the unpleasant task is low-value, just get it out of the way as soon as you can.<\/p>\n

If you can reliably do the hard things first, you\u2019ll find that you\u2019re much more successful. You\u2019ll also be happier, because you won\u2019t have to stress about those hard things more than necessary.<\/p>\n

Originally posted 2019-09-15 20:43:47. <\/small><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Profit<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don\u2019t want to do the hard things. We like to do the enjoyable things. If something isn\u2019t enjoyable, then we at least want it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-habits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}