Those focus juices you have swimming in your head are of limited supply. They start out pretty high in the morning (usually after coffee) and by the time you’re winding down after dinner, you’re probably feeling pretty wasted–and that’s before you start drinking.
If you wait until later on to do the important stuff thinking you will build momentum and roll through it, you’re probably wrong.
Here’s what usually happens: you start off with 5-10 tasks of low importance but are relatively easy to complete. You do them and feel rather accomplished and like you deserve a break. You turn on Netflix or YouTube and never have the ability to sustain focus for the rest of the day.
When you do the difficult tasks right away, not only are they less difficult and less scary (because your mental energy/focus is high), but the smaller, less important tasks are a piece of cake and you’ve built actual momentum and you’ll sweep through them. This makes you feel good and you start stringing together lots of good days.
It’s much easier to do the pressing, but less important issues right now than it is to do harder things that aren’t immediately required. We all fall into this trap and it’s why we spend more time checking email than planning and executing on the future of our business.
Burn that creative match on important “big” stuff, don’t waste it on small things that are easy anyway.