Eat the frog is bad advice for makers
The most-quoted productivity rule quietly assumes you're a manager. Most creative work disagrees.
"Eat the frog" — do the hardest, most unpleasant task first — works when your hardest task is unpleasant but shallow: the awkward email, the expense report.
For makers, the hardest task is usually not unpleasant. It's deep. And deep work doesn't want your first anxious hour; it wants your best one.
A better rule from studying working habits of writers and mathematicians: protect the best hour, spend it on the most ambitious thing. For most people that hour arrives 1–3 hours after waking, once the fog lifts and before the world's requests arrive.
The frogs? Batch them into the trough — the early-afternoon dip when your brain is only good for shallow work anyway. Unpleasantness survives low energy. Depth doesn't.