“Priority” meant the first thing. For 500 years, no one pluralized it. Then corporate-speak got its hands on it.
Suddenly, everyone had “top five priorities.” Meetings began with PowerPoint slides listing eight “core” focuses. Your manager expected you to hit three competing KPIs at once — all urgent, all number one.
This isn't strategy. It’s denial.
If Everything’s a Priority, Nothing Is
The second you say “priorities,” you've already given up clarity. It sounds productive, but it’s actually cowardice.
You’re refusing to make a hard decision. So you hedge. You dilute your focus across five “equally important” goals and then wonder why none of them move.
It’s like trying to sprint in five directions at once. You won’t get anywhere — you’ll just tear something.
Attention Is a Limited Resource. Act Like It.
You only get a few clear hours per day. You only have one mind. One body. One shot at today.
Your to-do list might be long, but your priority should be short. As in: one item. That’s what the word means.
Clarity comes from constraint. Force yourself to choose.
“So What Should I Do Instead?”
On a day-to-day basis, prioritizing doesn’t mean monastic focus on a single task for 12 hours straight. It means making one thing clearly matter more than the rest — and planning your time to reflect that.
It might look like:
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Blocking off two uninterrupted hours in the morning for deep work on your most valuable task.
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Letting some emails wait until afternoon instead of pretending they're emergencies.
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Saying no to meetings that don't move the needle.
The rest of your tasks still exist — but they orbit around the one thing that gets protected time, energy, and focus. That’s what prioritizing actually looks like.
It’s not about perfection. It’s about weight. One thing has to weigh more than the others today. That’s your priority.
In summary:
Your calendar might be full. Your brain might be fried.
But you only ever have one real priority.
The question is: are you brave enough to choose it?