Oftentimes in life somethings matter more than others. While this statement is unlikely to be questioned, our actions don‘t reflect these varying levels of importance a surprising amount of the time. Instead of starting off our days with the single most important task to make progress in our lives, it is easy to check email or do other relatively meaningless tasks instead. Most meaningful tasks are hard and surrounded by all sorts of expectations.

Expectations to do a good job, achieve the desired outcome the first time and others abound. But what if instead we let go of the notion that we need to be perfect in every way, instead just accepting ourselves and the world as it is.

The world is much better off than what is often reflected in the news. Sure, there are bad things happening, and setbacks at every corner, but humanity has made immense progress over the years and this century is no different.

In any case, intentionally picking the key drivers of progress in your own life, and starting your day focused on those is an excellent blueprint for making headway. You can use methods like 3 Most Important Tasks if that helps, but the point is just to identify what matters most and do that. Life is short, and we could certainly fill all our time with emails, social media, or whatever your favorite distraction might be, but if you're reading this, I doubt you want to live that way.

Even if you don't get all the tasks you'd hoped for accomplished, I'd bet you will be much closer than if you hadn't taken the time to set such an intentional focus.

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Photo is of a paper mache dragon head in Chicago’s Chinatown. Also, if you're interested in gaining a more balanced view of where the world stands, I would highly recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It was recommended to me by people on both sides of the political spectrum and has been quite the insightful read.