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Revolutionary France may seem like a strange place to find a life hack, but in the 1790s, the French satirist Nicolas Chamfort offered some stark advice to cope with our daily travails. One should swallow a toad every morning, so as not to find anything disgusting for the rest of the day, he wrote. In other words, start with the thing you dread most, and the following obligations will feel far more pleasant. Chamforts name has largely been forgotten by the English-speaking world, but his unsettling phrase has endured as a popular productivity mantra: Eat the frog. The idea has even inspired a best-selling self-help book from the 2000s. But does it actually work? It is only within the past few years that scientists have investigated the strategy, and they have found that “eating the frog” can be surprisingly powerful, boosting our satisfaction, motivation, and performance in the workplace, while helping us to begin our evenings feeling more refreshed. We just need to gird our stomachs and get on with it. Biased expectations You may be skeptical. The very idea of eating the frog runs against the widespread intuition that we should ease ourselves into a job with the simplest possible task. Most of us think that we can build up confidence as we progress, but it turns out to be completely wrong. Rachel Habbert and Juliana Schroeder at the University of California, Berkeley, first exposed this bias in 2020. In a series of experiments, the researchers first asked participants to consider different word games, and to say which order they would like to tackle themwith the vast majority of people opting to work their way up to the hardest challenges. They seemed to believe that this would allow their confidence to grow. To test whether those preferences were justified, Schroeder and Habbert then asked the participants to perform the tasks in order of either ascending or descending difficulty. Contrary to their predictions, the participants who started with the most demanding task ended up feeling considerably more confident than those who worked the other way. Eating the frog at the beginning of the task, it seemed, had allowed them to finish on a high. The “easy addendum effect” The results chime with a later finding by Edward Lai, an assistant professor of marketing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was inspired, in part, by the peak-end rule. Put simply, this is the principle that our memories of an experience are biased by its most intense moments, and by the way it endswhile neglecting its overall duration. In the original experiments describing this phenomenon, the late Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize-winning psychologist at Princeton University, asked participants to plunge one of their hands into unpleasantly cold14°C (57°F)water for 60 seconds. After they had dried off, they then plunged the other hand into water of the same temperature for the same length of time, followed by a further 30 seconds at 15°C (59°F)before being asked which trial they would like to repeat. The logical answer would seem to be the first, but most went for the second, since it ended on a more pleasant note. Lai and his colleagues wanted to test how this might apply to our work. They tasked some participants with common administrative jobs, such as filing books alphabetically or answering customer inquiries. Some of the participants were given a single block of tasks, while others were asked to complete the same number of jobs while also taking on a second block of easier tasks. (The people answering customer queries were given a few extra emails asking for straightforward clarifications, for example.) Despite doing more work overall, the people who had been given the additional problems felt that they had made less overall effort than those who had simply tackled the core task, and they were more satisfied as a result. They also showed greater persistence. They were less likely to want to take a break, and more likely to opt in to additional tasks, and actually complete them, Lai says. To double-check that the sequence mattered, they also tried placing the simpler tasks at the beginning, or at the middle of the sequence. But the only way that people felt happier and more satisfied was when we put the easy ones at the end, he saysleading the researchers to call it the “easy addendum effect.” We can only conclude so much from laboratory experiments, but the finding has since been replicated in real-life companies. In one weeklong study, Chen Zhang, an associate professor in leadership and management organization at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and his colleagues encouraged 83 knowledge workers at an IT company to change their schedules so that they focused on the days biggest challenges during the morning. As Schroeders and Lais findings would have predicted, they ended the day more positively, with less fatigue as they left work. A second survey at an e-commerce company found that this approach could also increase productivity. The participants supervisors reported that they were more likely to go above and beyond their everyday responsibilities after completing their most daunting tasks first, for example. Reflection and planning Putting all this into practice will take a little forethought. In Zhangs study, the participants spent the first moments of each morning rating the difficulty of each task before deciding on their schedule. In some cases, there will only be one logical order to do things. Whenever we have a bit of flexibility, however, we can choose to tackle the biggest challenges as early as possible. I frequently apply this strategy myself. Ive just started writing a new book, for instance, and some of the more technical sections will require particularly heavy lifting. Knowing about the easy addendum effect, I focus on these more demanding tasks before lunch and spend the afternoon working on the connective tissue and the personal anecdotes, which are often far more pleasurable to write, before spending the final hour revising what I have written. I arrange work calls and meetings in a similar manner, placing those with the potential for conflict in the first half of the day, and friendly catch-ups toward the evening. Simply categorizing your emails can make a real difference, Lai says. Clearly, some will need to be answered urgently, but once you have prioritized those that need immediate attention, you can eat the frogs first and leave the quickest responses until last. Lai is sure this simple habit has enhanced his own happiness. If I do that, I feel like it hasnt been such a bad day when I walk out of the office, he says. Nicolas Chamfort, we can guess, would heartily approve.
Category:
E-Commerce
Imagine the scene: Your plane just landed late. Youve barely got enough time to catch your connection, but first youve got to convince the other passengers to let you off before them. Good luck. Recently, though, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant flipped the script, according to Kathrin Peters. Peters, co-founder of consulting firm Withiii Leadership, says a recent flight taught her one of the best real-life lessons shes ever seen in generating instant connectivity. After confirming the planes late arrival, the flight attendant asked passengers to raise their hand if they were ending their journey in Salt Lake City, the flights destination. After most of the hands in the cabin went up, he continued. Now, everyone who has their hands up: Imagine the anxiety youd feel if you had to catch another flight tonight and werent sure youd make it. Put your hands down. And now, those connecting to San Francisco, Palm Springs, and Denver, raise yours! Everyone, look around, the flight attendant requested. These are the people wholl be sprinting off the plane tonight as soon as we land. Look at them, and imagine this was you. The flight attendant then implored everyone in the cabin who didnt have a connecting flight to stay seated and give the other passengers space to get out as quickly as possible. If we all play our part, they can make it, the flight attendant said. Thank you so much for your consideration and help. Every one of those guys appreciates you for it. Peters said the energy in the cabin completely shifted. Everyone suddenly shared the same mission, Peters wrote in a LinkedIn post. We all knew who the people were that needed to hustle now. And we were all in it with them, feeling their adrenaline in our veins. When the plane landed, says Peters, only connecting passengers stood up. Others helped them with their bags. Afterward, the remaining passengers patiently got up, grabbed their things, and exited calmly. The whole plane was rooting for them, Peters said. What this flight attendant did was brilliant, namely, motivating others to resist the urge to act in their own self-interest, and help instead. Its a case study in emotional intelligence, which includes the ability to empathize with others and build connection. Why did the flight attendants technique work so well? And how can you use this lesson to help you become a better leader? To answer those questions, lets take a closer look at the quality of empathy. (Sign up here for my free email course on emotional intelligence.) The three types of empathy Empathy is the ability to understand and share the thoughts and feelings of others. But according to psychologists Daniel Goleman and Paul Ekman, there are actually three types of empathy: Cognitive empathy: the ability to understand another persons thoughts and feelings Emotional empathy: the ability to actually share or relate to those feelings Compassionate empathy (or empathic concern): the ability to take action in an attempt to demonstrate empathy Interestingly, while we all want others to show empathy to us, we often fail to show it to others. There are several reasons for this, but it basically boils down to the fact that showing empathy is hard. The first two types, cognitive and emotional, take mental energy. And the third type, compassionate empathy, takes physical energy, too. But the flight attendant was able to inspire passengers to exercise all three types of empathy, by gently guiding everyone through the process, each one building upon the other. After identifying who was in a position to help, he helped them exercise cognitive empathy by prompting them to imagine the anxiety theyd feel if they were the ones trying to catch another flight. Then, he helped them build connection with emotional empathy, by pointing out who on the plane was in that exact situation and asking them to imagine they were the ones in it. Finally, he motivated them to take action, by encouraging positive peer pressure and inspiring the group to work together. This was no longer a disconnected group of people, they were a team with a single mission: Get those passengers to their connecting flights. How can you use these lessons in your workplace? If youre a leader, look for ways to help your people exercise all three types of empathy. Identify whos in a position to help, and who needs help. Then, use questions and phrases similar to that flight attendants. For example: How would you feel if . . .? Imagine this were you . . . How can you help? If we all play our part . . . Thank you for your help. Also, remember to gently guide everyone through the process, step-by-step. Because empathy takes time and effort, and thats a challenging journey to ask of others. But if you use principles of emotional intelligence like that flight attendant, youll inspire people not just to feel empathy, but to act on it. Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you’ll never miss a post. Justin Bariso This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Category:
E-Commerce
If youre order number 67 at In-N-Out, dont expect to hear your number called. The fast food chain has reportedly removed the number from its system, after viral videos show teens responding with wild celebrations after waiting around just to hear the number called. Imagine explaining this to someone in the future, one commenter wrote. Employees confirmed the number hasn’t been used for orders for about a month, according to a report from People magazine. After order number 66, the next order jumps straight to number 68. The chain has also removed the number 69, for good measure. The two digits, pronounced six, seven, not sixty-seven, have also been wreaking havoc in classrooms over the past couple months. Vice President JD Vance even took to social media and called for the numbers to be banned. He wrote on X, Yesterday at church the Bible readings started on page 66-67 of the missal, and my 5-year-old went absolutely nuts repeating six seven like 10 times. He continued, I think we need to make this narrow exception to the First Amendment and ban these numbers forever. Others have adopted an “if you cant beat em, join em” approach. In November, both Wendys and Pizza Hut added a 67-cent Frosty deal and 67-cent wings” to their respective menus, paying homage to the meme in the hope of enticing teens. Domino’s also launched its own promo deal, offering customers one large pizza with one topping for $6.70. The trend has, somewhat unbelievably, reached the house floor. Utah Republican U.S. Rep. Blake Moore, while reporting the ayes and nos for a vote on a joint resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives last month, joked the results were about 6-7 while doing the juggling hand gesture. “6-7” officially cemented its status as the choice for Dictionary.com‘s word of the year. “Perhaps the most defining feature of 67 is that its impossible to define, wrote Dictionary.com. Its meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical.” For those still lost, the numbers can be traced back to a song called Doot Doot, released by hip-hop artist Skrilla in late 2024, in which he raps, 6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (bip, bip). From there, a video of a boy yelling 6-7 into the camera at a basketball game went viral. Since then, its taken on a life of its own.
Category:
E-Commerce
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