Tackle the Tough Jobs First

I am a huge fan of the writing of Mark Twain, whose common sense approach to life seems to fit my own world view. And while Samuel Clements, his real name if you didn’t already know, began writing like most of us with pen and paper he was the first person to write a book using a typewriter. The book was Life on the Mississippi (1882), and the machine was a Remington No. 2.

Most of this post was written for and appeared on my friend Rick Sammon’s blog . If you enjoy travel photography, you owe it to yourself to visit this site. While Rick and I have little in common about the kind of photography we do, we share a common ethnicity and attitude, especially when it come to the subject of work. This topic came up during a recent lunch we had when Rick was presenting a seminar and workshop in Denver. We got to talking about work habits and during the conversation I explained my implementation of a philosophy that, it turned out, that we both hold about the process of work.

I explained my philosophy to him this way:

I start each day with a written (or mental) To-Do lists of the tasks that I want to accomplish. Like any list it consists of some things that we like to do and others that we do not. Some people put off all of the stuff they don’t like until last and spend the whole day dreading having to deal with those tasks. And since the plans of mice and men doesn’t always go as planned, the tasks we didn’t get around to today, sometimes get carried over onto tomorrow and then we’ve spent two days dreading attacking those challenges.

The solution, as I explained to Rick, was that “I do the hard things first.” That way you have only the good stuff—the fun stuff—left to do for the rest of the day with the bonus that you won’t have to do it tomorrow or spend all night laying in bed worrying about what you didn’t do that day because you already did it. This is the first step in helping your way to a good night’s sleep and making you ready for a new day tomorrow, where once again, you’ll do the hard stuff first.

OK, it’s a little thing but suggest that you give it a try and see how it works for you.