Asher's Blog

Still on Priorities

3. When Everything Is a Priority, Nothing Is a Priority

I love this story about a family who bought a ranch. They were fed up with the noise and traffic of the city, saved their money, sold their cramped apartment, and finally moved out west to enjoy wide-open spaces and raise cattle. A month later, some friends came to visit and asked what they had named the ranch.

“Well,” the new rancher said, “I wanted to call it the Flying W. My wife wanted the Suzy-Q. Our oldest thought it should be the Bar-J, and our youngest liked the Lazy Y. So we compromised, we named it the Flying Lazy Y-W-Bar-J Suzy-Q Ranch.”

“Wow,” the friend said. “Can I see your cattle?”

“We don’t have any,” the rancher replied. “None of them survived the branding.”

It’s a corny story, but it illustrates something painfully true: when everything is treated as a high priority, nothing actually gets the attention it deserves. At that point, you’re not prioritising, you’re avoiding decisions. And when decisions are avoided, progress stalls.

Over time, I’ve learned a few priority principles that are worth remembering.

1. Think Better Before You Work Harder

If you want to cut down a tree, it makes more sense to sharpen the blade or get a machine with a sharper one than to swing harder. I’ve discovered that when you start thinking about how to scale your current output by 100s, 1,000s, or even 10,000s, your thinking becomes clearer and more strategic.

Learning how to allocate time properly has also been one of the most valuable skills I’ve picked up recently. It’s simple, but not easy, and sticking to it consistently can be transformative. I genuinely believe that if you master how to think clearly and manage time intentionally, success becomes far more predictable.

2. Be Patient and Content

Patience and contentment teach you how to move forward with strategic thinking and disciplined execution. For years, I struggled with the habit of trying to do too many things at once, often with limited resources. The result was predictable: nothing truly meaningful got done.

What changed was learning to identify the one objective that had disproportionate impact. Last year, the company had a shared, visible OKR everyone was focused on. But I knew there was another goal, less visible, more uncomfortable, that determined the survival of the business. Without it, everything else would collapse, and I was the only one positioned to drive it.

I set a modest target and ended up achieving twice that. It was tough, demanding, and required deep focus, but with the support of my cofounder, we gave it everything. That single focus changed the trajectory of the year. Sometimes, progress doesn’t come from doing more, it comes from choosing better.

3. The Good Is the Enemy of the Best

One of our mantras this year is excellence, and I’ve realised that excellence often comes down to choosing between two good options. Do you read for four hours as planned, or settle for three without a genuine reason? Do you pick up another call, or finish the task you already committed to? Do you chase two goals, or commit fully to one?

There are no blanket answers here because context matters.

A powerful illustration of this is the story of a lighthouse keeper before the days of electricity. He received oil each month for one purpose: to keep the light burning. Because he lived near town, people came asking for oil – for warmth, for searching for a missing child, for keeping machinery running. Each request was good, and each time, he gave oil.

By the end of the month, the oil ran out and the light went out. Then, a ship wrecked during a storm, and lives were lost because the light at the lighthouse was off.

The investigation revealed a simple truth: the oil had one primary purpose. As life gets busier and success increases, you’ll constantly be forced to choose between good things. Sometimes, the good must be sacrificed so the best can survive.

4. Proactive Beats Reactive

The best leaders I know have strong foresight. They anticipate problems, actions, and reactions before they happen. So, planning ahead is not optional, it’s foundational for effective leadership.

I’m always surprised when people start a Monday without a clear plan for the week. If you have OKRs, this shouldn’t be difficult. Being reactive is expensive; being proactive saves time, energy, and momentum.

I once spoke with an elderly woman who said she forgets things often. During our conversation, she mentioned she had planned to tell me something but couldn’t remember it. I gently pointed out that it wasn’t really a plan because she was waiting to see how the conversation went first. A real plan gets written down.

My rule of thumb is simple: pen and paper are far more reliable than the human brain. You don’t need to prove your brain is sharp, just write things down. Over time, repetition builds memory naturally.

Think about how you navigate a new area. At first, it feels confusing but a few days later, you’re confident and sometimes you even discover shortcuts people living there for years don’t know. That’s what preparation does!

If you ever doubt the power of proactivity, think about the week before a vacation. It’s usually your most productive week. Why? Clear priorities and a hard deadline force you to choose your priorities correctly. That’s the difference between initiating and reacting.

5. Important and Urgent Scales

This is how effective leaders prioritise their work, and mastering this alone will make you better.

• High Importance / High Urgency: Do these first.
• High Importance / Low Urgency: Schedule them deliberately and protect the time.
• Low Importance / High Urgency: Delegate where possible, or handle them quickly with minimal involvement.
• Low Importance / Low Urgency: Eliminate if possible. If not, delegate. If you must do them, batch them into a small, contained time slot, never during your prime hours.

Priorities aren’t about doing everything. They’re about choosing what truly matters, and having the courage to protect it.