Habbert, R., & Schroeder, J. (2020). To build efficacy, eat the frog first: People misunderstand how the difficulty-ordering of tasks influences efficacy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 91, 104032. [Science Direct Link]
Short Summary: This paper shows that completing tasks in increasing-easiness order builds efficacy more than increasing-difficulty (or randomized) order, but people prefer to complete tasks in the opposing order in part because they inaccurately believe that doing so will enhance their efficacy (7 experiments).