Introduction

The French writer, Nicolas Chamfort, wrote this back in the 1790s, and it was translated to English in 1851:

M. de Lassay, a very indulgent man, but with a great knowledge of society, said that we should swallow a toad every morning, in order to fortify ourselves against the disgust of the rest of the day, when we have to spend it in society.

The idea of eating the frog in the morning is always attributed to Mark Twain, but it appears the true origin lies here with Chamfort. The meaning behind this quote is that, since we already have performed what possibly is the biggest and most difficult task to perform, we can take solace in knowing that there won't be anything more difficult to do throughout the day. Though this quote was originally applied to living in high society, we can apply it to our everyday lives and adapt it to the lay-person going about his life. Here is where the ABCDE method of task management comes to play. This method is probably one of the most major discoveries I made this semester. Using it gives me a clear road-map for the things I have to do each day and I worry significantly less about what tasks I need to complete and when, simply because I'm getting all the difficult things out of the way first. So, without further ado, here is what the ABCDE method is all about:
 

Body

Brian Tracy, the author of the book "Eat That Frog!" is the original creator of this method. Each tasks is given a letter that corresponds with its importance. If there are multiple tasks that yield a similar intensity of consequence, they can be ordered by most important > least important (A1, A2, A3; B1, B2, B3...) This is ultimately for you to assess and decide.

A Tasks
A tasks are tasks that are the most important tasks that need to be done. These tasks usually result in major consequences if they are not done. Some examples of this can include: passing in your term paper that makes up 20% of your grade, paying rent, or writing an important report that your boss needed to have before his next meeting. These are tasks that you must perform immediately and get out of the way before proceeding to other, less important tasks. The basic premise of this is to get all the hard tasks out of the way to simplify your day and relieve any stress you may feel regarding these.
 

B Tasks
B tasks are tasks that are somewhat important tasks that need to be done. These tasks usually result in minor consequences if they are not done. Some examples of this can include: reading an assigned piece before your next lecture, going to a dentist appointment, or returning a sales call. These are tasks that you must perform ONLY AFTER you perform your A tasks. The basic premise of this is to truly begin assessing which tasks yield the most major consequences, and to sort them accordingly. Note: I have found that some B tasks are dynamic, and can increase in importance if you do not do it for a prolonged period of time. Example: if you start forgetting to return multiple sales calls, you should begin to consider making this an A task to prevent major consequences from occurring.
 

C Tasks
C tasks are tasks that are not really important to get done. These tasks usually result in no consequences if they are not done. Some examples of this can include: attending an event on campus, making your bed, or going out with your coworkers on Friday. These are tasks that you perform ONLY AFTER you perform your A and B tasks. The basic premise of this is to begin prioritizing work over play, and reinforce the idea that you must NEVER sacrifice your work in order to play. If you have shit to get done, fucking get it done, then have your fun.
 

D Tasks
D tasks are tasks that you can delegate to another person and have them get done. These are tasks that can be potentially removed from your workload, lightening it for the day and channeling your focus on things that are truly important to you. Some examples of this can include: having a member of your school's Exercise Club create a flyer for your next event, having your plate cook you dinner, or sending another manager out to the floor of your restaurant during peak hours so you can handle office work. These are tasks that you begin to remove from your workload, and where you truly see what you need to get done everyday and what you DON'T need to get done everyday. I reckon that many people will finally see areas in which you can free up a lot of time simply by delegating stupid tasks to other people. You have more important shit to work on. Leave the dumb shit to the others.
 

E Tasks
E tasks are tasks that you can eliminate entirely from your day in case you want to free up a bit more of your time. These are tasks that usually yield no benefit or no consequence, therefore allowing you to say "fuck it," and reinvest your time elsewhere. Some examples of this can include: hanging up a poster in your dorm, getting to level 55 on CoD, or beating the AI in the chess game on your work computer. These are tasks that do jack shit for you in your life. They do fucking nothing. They are time wasters and energy suckers. Fuck that. Get everything important done before you waste time doing these things. You only have a certain amount of willpower everyday that you must use to perform at peak productivity, and little things like decorating and gaming just eat that willpower like a candy bar. This is the final portion of the method, in which you may find that you either have completely eradicated any shit tasks, or that you have a bunch of shit tasks that need eradicating.
 

Conclusion

The examples I gave for each task level were absolutely improvised, and you most likely will be able to come up with your own examples just by reading them. The entire basis of this task organization method is assessment of consequences. The key to forming a solid to-do list is determining the consequences of each task, and whether they are major or minor ones. This is probably the most important thing I derived from this ever since implementing it in my life.
 

It has been 2 months since I began operating with this method, and it has reaped absolutely massive rewards and has made me infinitely more productive, a level of productivity which I have never reached before in my life. Being productive is important to keeping true to your life's mission, and this method makes that infinitely easier.