Hot take: Batching your hard tasks early actually kills productivity

I used to think waking up and knocking out my toughest project first was the holy grail of career advice. Did that for 6 months straight at my marketing job in Austin. Turns out I was just burning out by 10 AM and coasting on caffeine the rest of the day. What actually helped was doing routine stuff first for 90 minutes and saving the big creative tasks for after lunch. My brain just works better after it's warmed up with emails and data entry. It sounds backwards but my output went up by like 30% after 3 weeks of this. Anyone else find that the standard 'eat the frog' advice backfires for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith90015d ago

Calling it a "hot take" when it's pretty standard advice now.

robin59115d ago

The whole "hot take" thing has gotten weird because people throw it on stuff that's been common knowledge for like five years now. Back when I was still checking forums on my flip phone, a hot take meant you were saying something that would get you banned from the family dinner table. Now it's like "unpopular opinion: drinking water is healthy." The real hot take nobody talks about is how we've gotten so scared of being wrong that we cushion every statement with a disclaimer. If you're gonna say something, just say it and own it whether people agree or not. That's way more valuable than labeling your basic observation a hot take so nobody can call you out on it.

jamie94010d ago

Dude, this reminds me of something that happened to my buddy Mark last week. He posted this take about how most "productivity hacks" are really just ways to make you feel busy without actually getting anything done. Not exactly groundbreaking, right? Well this random guy comes in and calls it a "brave hot take" and Mark just about lost his mind. He was like "I just said planning your day is overrated, I didn't drop a truth bomb on the nation." Its like people are so desperate to sound edgy they'll slap a cool label on anything. Honestly, your point about owning your words without a safety net is exactly what I needed to hear today.