Holistic prioritization requires sometimes working on lower priority tasks

At the risk of stating the obvious: always working on your #1 priority doesn’t work. I have learned this the hard way. (Most recently, when I tried David Gauer’s cool sticky note todo list system.) Health, and specifically exercise, are generally my #2 or #3 priority. “Ruthless prioritization” means you never get to your #2 and #3 priorities, until your teeth start falling out, at which point they become your #1 priority. This is dumb. We need to anticipate the teeth falling out, and hoist the priority of going to the dentist proactively. I think many people do this, but slightly later than optimal. Example: a firefighter’s priorities tend to be 1) put out fire(s) actively burning houses and/or people, 2) eat, sleep, spend time with spouse, etc. If they sit down to a nice candlelit dinner with their spouse, and their pager goes off, they’re out the door in under a minute. But then suppose they are transplanted to an understaffed department in a busy city, where there’s always a fire…

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