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TIL that eating the frog first thing is a trap for freelancers who panic
So last Tuesday a client emailed me at 7am and moved a big design project up from next Friday to this Friday. That is a 9 day job turned into 3 days, and my usual move is to panic and start on the hardest part first. I did that for about 45 minutes and got nowhere, just staring at this one logo mark like it owed me money. Then I flipped it and did the 4 easiest tasks on my list instead, stuff like sending files and fixing a color palette. I knocked those out in 2 hours, and suddenly the big scary logo looked way less scary because I had momentum. I ended up finishing the whole thing by Thursday night, which never happens. So the eat the frog advice is garbage for me when I'm already freaking out, because panic plus hard task equals me sitting there doing nothing. What is your go to move when a deadline gets cut in half like that, do you start easy or just rip the bandaid?
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the_john12h ago
Those 4 easy tasks did more for you than the logo ever could because you needed a win to get your brain out of freeze mode. My question is what happens when the easy stuff runs out and the clock still says 3 days, do you set a hard 20 minute timer on the scary task and just accept whatever messy draft comes out, or do you keep hunting for smaller stuff to hide in?
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