“Eat a live frog every morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” –Mark Twain

I was introduced to this quote several years ago at a training. The idea is you are most effective at work when you tackle the worst thing on your to-do list at the beginning of the day. Once you eat that frog, it is smooth sailing. “Frogs” appear in both our professional and personal lives as we are faced with important decisions, conflicts, or difficult conversations. These frogs can create significant stress or anxiety and sometimes we avoid or push-off frogs hoping they will go away. I have found that when I tackle my toughest issue first, it frees up my emotional bandwidth so that I can move forward in my day and direct my attention and emotions to other activities.