Do You Start with the Easy Parts or the Hard Parts?

I usually do the easy parts first. You?

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I’m curious: When you confront a multi-step problem, do you prefer to address the easy parts of the problem first or the hard parts? You can make a reasonable argument either way, but I wonder if more people favor one approach or the other. I’m an easy-parts-first kind of guy.

Easy Parts First

My preference for tackling the easy aspects of a problem initially is partly psychological and partly practical. I enjoy the satisfaction of having completed some tasks quickly and getting them out of the way. Then I can focus my attention on the more challenging issues, knowing I’ve already made some progress.

That preference might stem from the way I learned to take tests in school many years ago. First, I’d look through the entire exam to know what I’m confronting and make sure I had all the pages. Similarly, I like to understand the full scope of a problem if possible before I decide how to approach it.

Then I’d scan through the exam again and quickly answer those questions I knew I could get right away. On my next pass through, I’d work on those questions that I knew I could get right but would take a little more time…