The low hanging fruit

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This is about task prioritization.
What do you do first?

The most important things should come first, right?
Sure, but first, you just get a couple of quick tasks out of the way so you can better concentrate on the important work.
After all, you must be 100% efficient at the important stuff.

A text message just came in about the party tonight.
Certainly, you can just answer it real quick.

Ah, and the gift you have to wrap right now because you don't want your girlfriend to see it when she comes home.

Man, I am so hungry, I better eat before tackling this really important task or I won't be able to concentrate!

The low hanging fruit is more important, it seems, than the most important stuff because you will do it first. In most cases you only do the low hanging because you only have so much time every day.
So, are you actually prioritizing according to importance or easyness?

The above chart shows how tasks get harder as you get the easier ones out of the way. The interesting thing about this chart though is to realize that you will never get to do task number 10 if you have a limited time to 'do stuff' because you are lost in the flow of gorging yourself on the low hanging fruits of the Forbidden Tree.
Observe that just in order to 'get everyday stuff out of the way' you already need to invest some time (about 45 mins for 5 tasks in this exemple)

Takeaway/easy conclusion:
Put your phone to silent.
Dedicate a certain amount of time to 'important stuff' every day.

Post-script:
Know what is important.
Write it down.
Think of the things that will have a lasting positive impact on you and your environment.
Consider what will impact who you are 3 years from now.

Post-post-script:
There is an optical illusion on the graph, the red line seems tilted to the right. Can you spot it?

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