I’ve never been really adept at putting the first things first. One of Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of highly successful people, this maxim is condensed in my partner’s kindergarten classroom to “work first, then play.” Growing up I was fortunate to be able to play sports, so I was always a relatively busy kid. Homework didn’t get started until after dinner most nights. In college I procrastinated on papers so badly that sometimes I would begin them the morning they were due, whipping them out in an hour or so. And yet here I am, blogging before 6am. There’s a lot of content explaining procrastination, how it works and why it’s so powerful, so I won’t go into it here. But what I can say is that whenever you somehow make the switch of doing the important tasks first, when you are able to carve out time early in your day for deep work, when you “eat the frog” first thing in the morning, it really does change how you feel the rest of the day. You carry a sense of accomplishment with you, because you’ve tackled your greatest challenge, and you are more relaxed and less stressed, enabling you to enjoy the day.

I think about these truths as they pertain to a societal level. What are the “first things” for our species? What are our frogs, our big hairy audacious goals? What are the things we as a global community do not seem to want to do? Perhaps it’s our reluctance to combat climate change because of the economic costs and political forces that be. Maybe it’s ensuring every human lives a free life and has access to quality education. Possibly it’s reckoning with technology’s impact on the dissemination of information and its subsequent consequences. The point is, do we even consider these things? Are these concepts too grand, too far out of reach for us ordinary citizens? My counter: yes, let’s leave it up to those in power, because that’s worked so well over the course of our civilization. We have the capability now for the first time in the history of our species to work together globally to solve our greatest problems. We live in an opportunistic time. What will we do with this advantage? Will we continue to procrastinate? Or will we enjoy the empowerment from accomplishment, and relish the knowledge our children will live better lives? We really do have a choice here, and each of us has the ability to decide. It all starts with awareness, and putting first things first.