What does a normal human being do when they have a number of tasks on hand? Do they tend to start with the easiest task first or start by taking on the most complex task?
Many people think that if they get done with the toughest task at the very beginning, a large burden is taken off their shoulders. Some people tend to start with the simple and easy tasks so that they get a head start and to get a boost in their confidence.
You need to identify the magnitude of your tasks. Figure out the tasks that look troublesome to you and find out how much time it’ll be required to complete them.
Some tasks will demotivate you because they require a lot of time and hard work. On the other hand, there are tasks that fall on your forte, and you’re quite comfortable to do them within a short time.
The mindset of people is tough to judge. Two people who have similar attributes and skills might have different perspectives on the same job assigned to both of them.
For example, let’s consider that person A and person B have similar skillsets, and you tell both of them to dig a trench within an hour. Person A might bring a shovel and simply start digging without thinking, whereas person B might brainstorm about the task on hand and then manage a huge tractor to dig. So, it is essential to identify your take on the tasks allocated to you and how you want to initiate.
The type of task
The difficulty of your task or the time required for your task will decide your interest in performing the task. Many individuals have been found to postpone their tasks, and it gets carried on to the deadline of the task. When the deadline arrives, the individual tends to panic about the completion of the task.
For instance, if a student is given a choice to complete 2 simple assignments within a day or do a complex and strenuous job within a day, he would obviously choose to take the 2 assignments. Well, this choice might vary from student to student because once again, it depends on the mindset of an individual.
In the above example, if the same choice were given to a student who likes to take on challenges, their decision might have been different. A student who is always up for learning something new and gaining more experience through their studies might have taken the option of doing a complex assignment in a day.
Problem solvers normally tend to find a solution for the most intricate tasks out there. The ability of these individuals to brainstorm and formulate a creative solution sets them apart. Hence, identifying the type of task you’re going to partake in will set a course for you to decide on how you want to finish it.
Ways to stay motivated towards your task
If I’ve to be honest with you, the idea of a hard task or an easy task lies on your head.
If you start your day with the easiest task in your hand, but your brain decides to make it difficult for you. This will happen because of your perception of the task and your mood while doing it.
You’ll have a pretty hard time doing the easiest task of your schedule. Therefore, your motivation plays a big role in deciding how well you’re going to perform in the completion of a task. Your take on the task is also affected if you have an opposing presumption about it or if you start badly with the task.
Why do you think I am giving so much emphasis on your motivation? Well, remember the crow and the pitcher story?
If the crow wasn’t determined about drinking water from a certain pitcher, it would have never quenched its thirst.
Your drive towards completing a certain job will decide how effectively you’re going to do it. Researchers have advised individuals to stay in a positive mood before taking on complicated work.
You also need to clear your mind of all sorts of distractions and negative thoughts since if you lose your focus, you’re going to mess up your work.
Doing your tasks step by step
Planning your task and chalking out on how you want to finish it helps you ease out the entire process.
Even after planning and making a proper process of how to finish your task, a big hurdle can procrastinate.
Who does not love to procrastinate? You tend to procrastinate even more if you have a bundle of tasks left to finish. You’re using all your brain and knowledge in completing a task, but suddenly you see the wall behind, and you’re in love with it. The wall feels like the most interesting thing on the planet to you at that point. This is a very natural process of the human brain, and you don’t have to necessarily blame yourself for acting in this way.
Creating a step-by-step process of how you’d like to take on your job helps you to stay motivated.
After completing each step, get some rest, take a break, watch a video, or play some video games and then come back again to do the next step. Yes, this method might be a bit time-consuming, but if you’re planning to take on a hard task at the very beginning, this can be an efficient hack. Any and every task was given to you can be completed with willpower and some smart moves.
Make a routine on how and when you want to finish each step, and it’ll be easy for you to complete it.
Should you tackle the hard task first?
The ultimate question and the final deduction of this entire discussion, should you first take on the hard task?
Let’s start by the alternative, where you start by taking on the easy tasks, how will you be benefitted from them?
If you start with a simple and easy task, you’ll get a major boost in your confidence. You’ll see that you don’t require that much effort to complete the task and you can save energy to take on the big ones later.
On the other hand, if you take on the second alternative of starting with the hard task, what are the benefits?
The initial benefit of starting with a difficult task is the fact that you’ve mentally prepared yourself to complete and get done with it once and for all. Once you get done with the hard job, the easier tasks will seem insignificant to you, and you can complete them without any hassle. It helps to reduce stress and anxiety significantly since there’s a constant alarm on the back of your mind to finish a complex task.
Conclusion
In the end, your willpower will be the answer to whether you want to tackle the hard task first. There’s no definite set of rules to take on the hard task or the easy task; whatever you’re comfortable with should be your top priority. In my experience, I’d get straight into my hard task to start the day because I am a person who tends to be stressed about the work left in hand. Hence, I might die out of stress if I have got a tough job to complete, and I’m doing easy tasks at the very beginning.
