Identify what matters most and focus energy accordingly—essential skill when facing more demands than time, ensuring important work doesn't get crowded out by urgent but trivial tasks. ). Common traps: urgency bias (responding to immediate over important), shallow work (busy but not productive), inability to say no, confusing motion with progress.
Strategies: time blocking (schedule priority tasks first), batching similar tasks, eliminating before optimizing, saying no to good opportunities for great ones. Applies to: daily tasks, career decisions, relationship investment, learning goals. Limited time/energy reality—choose wisely. Differentiates high achievers from overwhelmed. Learnable through practice.