Jun 7
A practical guide to product roadmaps and prioritization for startups — building a flexible roadmap, how to prioritize features, the power of saying no, and keeping focus amid endless possible features.
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A practical guide to product roadmaps and prioritization for startups — building a flexible roadmap, how to prioritize features, the power of saying no, and keeping focus amid endless possible features.
How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Urgent: An Energy‑Based Approach
Your inbox has 147 unread messages. Three people are waiting for answers. Two deadlines passed yesterday. A colleague just marked a request “ASAP.” Your phone buzzes with a Slack message from your manager: “Quick question when you have a moment.” Continue reading How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Urgent: An Energy‑Based Approach
How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Urgent: An Energy-Based Approach
You know the feeling. Ten tasks, all marked “urgent.” Five emails, each insisting on a reply today. Three projects, all behind schedule. And somewhere underneath it all, a quiet voice asking: What actually matters? Continue reading How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Urgent: An Energy-Based Approach
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Question of the Day: One Prompt That Shapes Attention
We live in an open-world battlefield for our attention. From the moment we wake up, notifications, emails, breaking news, and endless feeds compete for our most valuable resource: our focus. Most of us go through the day in a state of chronic reactivity, bouncing from one urgent-but-unimportant task to the next. We end the day feeling busy, but not productive. Exhausted, but not accomplished.
The problem isn’t a lack of time; it’s a lack of direction. We’ve ceded control of our “attention filters” to our apps, our inboxes, and other people’s agendas.
What if you could reclaim that control with a single, simple tool? What if you could install a new operating system for your mind, one guided by your intention?
This is the power of the Question of the Day. It’s a single, personal prompt that you set for yourself each morning to consciously shape your attention and frame your entire day.
The Science of a Guiding Question
This isn’t just a “woo-woo” concept; it’s a practical way to direct a powerful part of your brain. In your brainstem is a bundle of nerves called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Think of the RAS as your brain’s bouncer or search filter.
It’s the reason why, after you decide you want to buy a specific model of car, you suddenly see that car everywhere. The cars were always there, but your RAS didn’t have instructions to tag them as “important.”
When you set a “Question of the Day,” you are handing your brain’s bouncer a new guest list. You are giving your RAS a new search query.
If your question is, “How can I be 1% better today?” your RAS will start scanning your environment for opportunities to learn and improve.
If your question is, “Where can I find beauty?” your RAS will highlight the pattern of leaves, the light in the stairwell, or a moment of kindness.
If your question is, “What’s the one thing that matters most?” your RAS will flag distractions as irrelevant and highlight your true priority.
Without a prompt, your brain’s default setting is “What’s new? What’s loud? What’s threatening?” A guiding question switches that setting to “What’s important?”
How a Single Prompt Reshapes Your Day
A “Question of the Day” acts as a rudder, providing tiny course corrections that, over time, lead you to a completely different destination.
It Simplifies Decisions: When you’re faced with two choices — scroll social media or read a book chapter — you can refer to your prompt. If your question is “What will I create today?” the choice becomes obvious. It cuts through decision fatigue.
It Filters Noise: A new, “urgent” email lands in your inbox. Your prompt, “Am I moving my most important task forward?” allows you to see the email for what it is — a distraction, not a priority.
It Cultivates Presence: A prompt like “How can I listen more deeply?” transforms a routine meeting. Suddenly, you’re not just waiting for your turn to talk; you’re actively engaged in the conversation, looking for subtext and connection.
It Builds Self-Awareness: It creates an intentional feedback loop. At the end of the day, you can reflect: “How did I answer my question?” This reflection is where real growth happens.
20 Examples of Powerful Daily Prompts
The best prompt is one that resonates with your current goals. It shouldn’t be a yes/no question, but an open-ended invitation. Steal one of these or mix and match to create your own.
For Productivity & Focus
What is the one thing I can do today that will make everything else easier or unnecessary?
How will I move my most important goal forward today?
What will I create rather than just consume?
Where can I eliminate friction?
What does “done” look like for today?
For Growth & Learning
What can I learn today?
Where can I be 1% better?
What hard thing am I willing to try?
What belief am I willing to challenge?
What am I currently avoiding?
For Presence & Connection
How can I make someone else’s day better?
Where will I find beauty?
How can I listen more deeply today?
What am I grateful for in this moment?
What will I slow down to enjoy?
For Resilience & Mindset
How will I show courage today?
What will I let go of?
When I get stressed, what is my anchor?
What’s the best way to respond to this?
What is truly in my control?
How to Start Your “Question of the Day” Practice
Make it simple, or you won’t stick with it.
Set It Before the Noise: The most crucial step. Ask your question in the first five minutes of your day, before you check your phone. Let your intention be the first input, not the world’s.
Make It Visible: Write it down. Put it on a sticky note on your monitor. Write it at the top of your journal. Make it the wallpaper on your phone. The goal is to see it multiple times.
Use It as a “Micro-Solitude” Anchor: When you feel overwhelmed (see our post on “Micro-Solitude”), use your 60-second pause to return to your question. It’s the fastest way to recenter.
Reflect and Repeat: At the end of the day, do a 1-minute reflection. How did your question shape your actions? You don’t need a new question every single day. You can keep the same one for a week, a month, or a whole season of life.
Your attention is your life. It is the sum total of what you focus on. You can let it be fragmented and stolen, or you can shape it with purpose.
A single, intentional prompt is the most powerful, low-effort tool for doing just that. It’s the compass that guides you back to what matters, all day long.
Priorities
As a new business, there are only two things you need to be working on:
Talking to users, and
Building product.
There are many ideas for doing these two things. So make a list to keep track of them and be deliberate about adding to that list and pulling tasks to work on.
Doing this will save you time.
If you’re not already doing so, get into the habit of adding and pulling ideas from this list on a weekly basis.
Lately I've been making compromises with my brain. Maybe that one thing is more time sensitive, but my brain hates it. Within reason, I can go, "Alright Brain, let's do that other important less urgent thing you enjoy more. I don't particulary want to cudgel you along right this moment when we are already low energy. We'll do that, sure." Doing that frees up brain space later to do the worse thing. It's really helped. Productive procrastination upgraded, I guess.
Can I only get my brain to read one chapter but not take notes? Well, atleast I will read the chapter. Do I have the energy to fill out a long form? No, but I can do the easy parts and table the rest. It's like the lie down and try to rest thing being better than not resting at all. Every little bit counts.