Mark Twain has been credited with saying that if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that it will probably be the worst thing you do all day.

In the spirit of that analogy, UALR employees learned in a recent “Procrastination: The Art of Eating a Frog” workshop that tackling the biggest, most important task of the day (in other words, the task you are most likely to delay) should be the first thing you do.  

“It’s an odd title. It comes from a book, ‘Eat That Frog!’ by Brian Tracy,” said workshop leader Emily Durham, contract manager of UALR’s Employee Assistance Program. “The concept is that you do the worst thing at the beginning of the day, and you won’t have to be strained and stressed for the rest of the day.”

Procrastination is a far larger problem than most people would suspect. One in every five people in the United States is a chronic procrastinator, according to Joseph Ferrari, lab director at DePaul’s Center for Social, Personality and Community Research.

While everyone procrastinates, the 20 percent of Americans who are chronic procrastinators delay almost every aspect of their lives, including at home, work, and school, and in their relationships.

“Procrastination causes a whole host of problems depending on that person, whether it be mental, physical, emotional, or career implications, missed opportunities, and financial problems,” Durham said. “We have all probably suffered some negative effect.”

Carolyn Turturro, an associate professor of social work, who said she has problems procrastinating, attended the workshop to find solutions to break the habit.

“I’m a procrastinator. There is no doubt about it,” Turturro said. “I had a couple of proposals for conferences and funding that just slid in under the deadline with literally five minutes to go. I find myself saying, if I don’t make the deadline, I don’t make it. However, these are good opportunities that I could be missing.”

There are several strategies you can employ to break the cycle of procrastination, including asking yourself why you procrastinate and finding ways to motivate yourself to be productive.

Visualizing your goals by writing them down is one strategy to keep yourself focused on the future, while a useful short-term strategy is the 11-minute rule.

“If there is something you don’t want to do, do it for 11 minutes,” Durham said. “If you don’t want to do it after 11 minutes, stop doing it. However, most of the time you will keep working after 11 minutes, and you will get a lot of work done.”

Any UALR employee who is interested in working on procrastination-related issues may contact the Employee Assistance Program at 501.686.2588.