This show is about finding clarity, perspective, and purpose. And I want to focus on an interchange between these today. And I want to talk about what I believe to be kind of the most critical singular activity that you can engage in. And this is for engineers, but it's also for most other career paths, most other life paths. We're going to talk about it in the specific context of an engineer today. But... I want to talk about... I want to talk about this interchange between clarity, perspective, and purpose. Specifically because... In today's episode, I want to give you this single activity. We won't bury the lead here. This single activity is prioritization. Prioritization. So what do I mean when I talk about the interchange between clarity, perspective, and purpose? When we talk about clarity... Most of the time, if you're listening to this podcast, your implicit kind of fill-in-the-blank here, when we say clarity, is clarity in action. Or, in other words, clarity about what to do. What decisions should I make? What skills should I acquire? What jobs should I take? What people should I talk to? What people should I work with? What should I tell my boss? What should I tell my report? What should I tell my peer? How should I approach my career? How should I approach all of these decisions that I need to make in my career? All of this is material. All of these are opportunities where clarity is desired. You're seeking clarity about these questions. And the clarity that you're seeking is not just any answer. Of course, you could have a clear answer. You could have a clear answer that has no basis in anything that you care about. So I could give you a clear answer that says, Well, just go learn JavaScript. Go tell that co-worker that you'd like to help them. Go interview for that job. Interview for that role. Go interview for that job. Go interview for that role. could tell you all of these things, and they would be clear, right? They would provide clarity, but we're not just seeking clarity. We're seeking perspective and purpose. We're seeking perspective and purpose, and we want our clarity to be through the lens of perspective and purpose. What should I do based on my perspective and my purpose? And this is why I'm telling you that prioritization is the key critical activity that you can engage in, because it answers this question. What should I do? What should I do based on some critical factor that I care about, my perspective and my purpose? Now, I'm not going to go into all the details, but I'm going to go into a little bit of detail. I'm kind of stretching perspective and purpose here a little bit, because you don't necessarily need purpose to decide, for example, which task to pick up first on your list of tasks to do today. But in the meta picture, what we're really saying is there are multiple reasons. We're going to fill in the blank here or kind of use reason for kind of a substitute for purpose. So clarity in order to do what? Clarity in order to accomplish what? This is really what prioritization is about. Now, very often we imagine that prioritization is kind of this monolithic task. And also that we as engineers are relatively involved in that prioritization process. This is something that we relegate over to, let's say, a product manager. But very often, our input is critical for prioritization. So understanding level of effort. And of course, we're talking right now about the typical kind of backlog prioritization that you might participate in. And so when you're looking at a backlog, you're trying to decide, what should we do first? What should we do next? And this monolithic task is somewhat unclear. And we seek clarity of priority because it enables us to move quickly. We don't have to ask the question, what should I pick up? In a perfect world, an engineer generally appreciates having that answer already made for them. So you pick up whatever's at the top of the backlog that you are capable of doing. And so prioritization then is delegated. And it's given to someone else to decide what to do. But the truth is, we are constantly prioritizing. Some parts of prioritization you may be giving over to someone else. But there are often things that you have to prioritize, whether you like it or not. And these prioritization questions come in the same form as those clarity questions. What should I do? The prioritization question. The prioritization question is about what should I do based on the fact that I only have a certain amount of time. Or rather, that my life is organized in some sequential fashion. What should I do next is the clarity question that is driving prioritization activities. Now this should seem obvious to you. Of course, what should I do next is the question that we're asking when we are determining prioritization. But remember that the answer is dependent on perspective and purpose. Why should I do this thing next? So the question that you should be asking yourself is not, what should I do? It's not, what should I do next? It's, what should I do next in order to? What should I do next in light of? What should I do next if I want? These are all the kinds of questions that you should be asking yourself. Quite literally, constantly. Now, this may sound exhausting. I actually had a discussion with my wife about the idea for this episode. And she works as a product leader in an organization. And I told her that I believe that there is one singular activity that if we all were able to master it, we would have a lot more successful endeavors than those who don't. And she immediately answered that at some point, I get tired. I get tired of prioritizing. I eventually run out of brain power. I get some kind of fatigue, whether that's decision fatigue or just human limitations. At which point I said, well, in this case, the highest priority thing that you can do might just be resting. Resting. If we think about choices that we make, we can consider all of the choices that we make to go through some kind of series of prioritization kind of algorithms in our head. Now, we don't necessarily have to be cerebral about every single prioritization decision we make. I don't think you have to consider how does this one line of code affect my career in the long run. That's not the case. It just seems a little bit too heavy handed and perhaps debilitating. Instead, having a clear purpose in a given moment and accepting that purpose for the clarity it provides. So in my wife's case, the most important thing she could do in the moment when she was tired is to sit down and rest. Stop thinking about what the most important thing is to do. And instead to do the most important thing in that case, which was maybe to just stare out the window at a tree. And this kind of integrated prioritization is where I really want you to move. If you're listening to this episode, I want you to think about not just what is the most important task I can complete today, but what is my prioritization strategy? For my life. What things are important to me at a purpose level, but also in order to be happy. This idea that we can always prioritize in order to serve the interests of our users. That is only one small part of the prioritization that matters at an atomic level for your decision making. You have to decide. You have to decide based on a lot of other factors too. And so when you think about what is the most important thing for me to do right now. What is the most important thing in light of? One of the things you might take into consideration is in light of my current mental state. What is the most important thing I can do in light of the excitement that I feel about this particular direction? What is the most important thing that I can do? In light of the excitement that I feel about this particular direction? In light of the fact that I haven't seen that friend in eight years and they're coming through town. They're only going to be here for two days. I have a big project that's due, but what can I do? I can use this purpose-based prioritization scheme to create clarity for my life. Very often you will hear me say something like this on the show and I risk sounding like the guy that's going to say, I can't do this. I can't do this. At the same time, you may find yourself bringing yourijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijij as you go through your day today, if you evaluate the problems that you faced recently even, to think about it in the lens of what should I do next because of? What should I do next in light of? What should I do next in order to? And filling in the blank for the in light of or for in order to. Filling in these blanks for what you're trying to optimize for will very often provide you the criteria you need to make the decision of what you should do next. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode of Developer Tea. I hope this was an encouraging episode. I hope that you feel a sense of lightness and perhaps the permission to think about your tasks with a little less of a sense of lightness. I hope that you feel a sense of lightness and less concern or anxiety and instead a little more holistic prioritization, purpose, clarity, perspective. All of these things we try to help you find on the show. Thanks so much for listening and until next time, enjoy your tea.