If you have a list of things that need to be done, do you tend to tackle the big (perhaps, more difficult) ones first and get them out of the way or do you start with simple (smaller) tasks/goals?

I had a boss once who was fond of saying “do first what you dread most.” That is the method I always try to use.

I’m with SuperMouse. Get the difficult tasks out of the way and then you can coast. Sooner begun is sooner done.

Actually I start with the ones having the highest priority. The ones due the soonest usually get done first.

Big, little- I prioritize on the urgency or importance regardless of the work entailed.

Tough stuff first. Beyond the psychological advantages, there are practical ones: In tackling the thorny problems, I often discover that I need to change my approach. If I’ve already done lots of other work based on my original assumptions, I may find that much of it will be rendered obsolete.

The more urgent tasks get done first. Lesser chores are delegated if at all possible – that was an advantage of being in management. If not, they get done after, and between, the other, more urgent jobs.

Depending on proportions, I usually do the smallest task first and then the biggest, followed by the rest.

Depends. I classify my todos into important/not important and urgent/not urgent. So there are four possibilities. Within those I tend to start with smaller tasks first especially when my day is full of meetings or conference calls. I prefer larger tasks when I got larger uninterrupted chunks of time, like free all morning till 11:30 am. I’m a morning person therefore I often begin larger tasks in the morning.