Thursday Email: Prioritization is more than a mentality

Read time: ~2.30 minutes

Happy Tuesday!

Every Tuesday I'd like to offer strategies for the week ahead and a thought to fuel your action.

Your brilliance means nothing when your mind is a battlefield of competing priorities.

Have you ever found yourself working late into the night, surrounded by half-finished tasks, wondering how you, a smart, capable person, ended up so overwhelmed? I have.

Most productivity advice assumes the problem is lack of effort. Just try harder! Focus more! These are the internal dialogues many of us have as we strive to manage our time better and focus on what matters most.

It was four weeks straight of travel. Some personal, some business. Through all of it, none allowed for my normal routine.

Early on, it was great. I needed some time away, and I mentally prepared for my routine to be disrupted. I worked to set things up to allow for the time.

The first week was okay. It allowed me to enjoy some time away while being flexible with my routine—something I constantly struggle with, but at this moment, I was proud of my ability to adapt.

Then the next week came—no time for planning the week ahead. My routine of being proactive started to become a routine of reacting when I had time. My weeks when I was back in town were full, my nights now consumed with work instead of relaxation.

The wear on my mental side and productivity was gradual. For the most part, it was not able to be seen until it became a burden. Four weeks into this journey of not having a routine, being reactive, and not staying above water, I was drowning.

I had lost clarity around my goals and focus. I was playing catch-up and reacting to fires rather than being thoughtful about what was needed in the future. What, prior to my travel, was a time of energy, excitement, and extreme alignment quickly turned to a lost mind, lack of clarity, and reacting to tasks.

And it was in this moment, as I sat there working late one night and wondering what I was doing, that I realized: I had lost my center. Although I liked the freedom from routine, moving too far from it had left me lost, emotional in reacting, and behind in my work.

This experience revealed four universal truths about prioritization that challenged everything I thought I knew:

Truth #1: Procrastination isn't laziness—it's exhaustion from cognitive dissonance. We create mental friction when our external actions don't align with our internal values. Like driving down a highway with your emergency brake engaged, you can move forward, but you'll burn through your mental fuel faster. Eventually, you stall.

Truth #2: Environment shapes mind more than willpower. We think prioritization is about mental fortitude, but our physical spaces and routines are the invisible architecture of our focus. Your workspace is like the frame around a painting—it either draws your eye to what matters or distracts with its own chaos.

Truth #3: The illusion of the adjacent possible. As soon as you begin one task, all other tasks mysteriously increase in appeal. This isn't a character flaw—it's how our brains are wired. The grass isn't just greener on the other side; it gets greener the moment you start mowing your own lawn.

Truth #4: Reactivity is the enemy of priority. In moments of mindfulness, we see clearly what deserves our attention. But in a reactive state, we chase whatever stimulus appears brightest, like moths constantly changing direction under a sky full of competing lights.

When you find yourself constantly reacting to notifications, others' emergencies, and social media's siren call, ask yourself: Is this reaction aligned with the person I want to be? Or am I moving further from my center?

The most successful people aren't necessarily better thinkers—they're better at creating conditions that protect their thinking. They build personalized systems that honor how their unique minds work. Off-the-shelf productivity systems are like other people's shoes—they might look perfect on display, but will give you blisters if they don't match your unique stride.

Prioritization isn't just about managing tasks—it's about managing ourselves. In a world where differentiation becomes increasingly difficult, our most valuable resource isn't time, but attention. And attention begins with knowing your center well enough to recognize when you're drifting away from it.

The best is ahead!

-Matt