Blog · Personal effectiveness
Every school leader has a task they keep moving to tomorrow. The difficult email, the budget, the conversation nobody wants to have. Here is a simple habit for getting it done.
Every school leader has one. The task that sits at the top of the list on Monday and is still there on Friday. The difficult email to a parent. The budget figures. The improvement plan. The conversation with a colleague that you know needs to happen.
We do not ignore these tasks. We simply find other things to do first. Urgent things, useful things, things that make us feel busy. And by the end of the day, the hard task is still waiting.
The phrase comes from an old saying: if you have to eat a live frog, do it first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day. The productivity writer Brian Tracy made it popular as a way of thinking about work.
The idea is simple. Identify your most important and most difficult task, and do it first, before email, before the corridor, before the day takes over. Not the easiest task. Not the most urgent. The one that matters most and that you are most tempted to avoid.
School days are not ours. From the moment the gates open, the day belongs to students, parents, colleagues and whatever happens next. A leader who plans to do the important work "later" rarely finds that later arrives.
The first hour is often the only protected time we have. If we spend it clearing the inbox, we have used our best thinking on someone else's priorities. If we spend it on the frog, we start the day having already done the thing that matters.
There is a second benefit. Avoided tasks take up space in our heads. They nag at us in meetings and follow us home. Doing the hardest task first removes that weight, and the rest of the day usually feels lighter.
Choose tomorrow's frog today. Before you leave, write down the one task you will do first tomorrow. Deciding in advance removes the morning debate.
Make it specific. "Work on the budget" is too vague to start. "Check the staffing costs for next year against the current budget" is a task you can begin at 7.30.
Protect the first 45 minutes. Close the inbox. Close the door if you can. Tell your team that this time is for focused work, and that urgent matters can still reach you.
Accept that some days will not go to plan. Schools are unpredictable. When the morning is taken over, eat the frog at the next possible moment, and start again tomorrow.
What is the task you have moved to tomorrow more than twice? That is probably your frog. What would change if you did it first thing tomorrow morning?
Leadership is not only about vision and strategy. Very often, it is about doing the difficult thing before the easy one, every day.
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