All the ways I’ve failed to set priorities for my day. Unnecessary.

“Does it smell like wrongdog in here?”Try asking that next time you could use some emotional support. [View online]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( “Does it smell like wrongdog in here?” Try asking that next time you could use some emotional support. - - - - - #1. All the ways I’ve failed at setting priorities. Related to one of yesterday’s [productivity pressure points](, I found this in my journal about all the ways I’d recently failed to perform the simple habit of “setting priorities for the day.” - I just plain don’t set priorities and then don’t do any work. - I don’t set priorities and then do meaningless work instead. - I do manage to set priorities and then don’t complete any of them. - I fail to set priorities because my morning starts with a phone call or meeting. - I fail to set priorities because I overslept and am in a rush to start work. - I fail to set priorities because I don’t want to (not sure why this happens). - I sequence my priorities according to some rational logic but then work on them in a completely irrational order. That leads to important things not getting done. - I fail to set priorities because I am sick. Have any of these happened to you? - - - - - #2. Reinforce what’s fun. Someone in our Discord community asked something very important about willpower. Why are we always setting our life up so that it requires so much willpower? That reminded me of this horse training anecdote from Kathy Sierra. As a horse trainer, she’s been experimenting with positive reinforcement techniques and she told me something very interesting about how she treats her horses when they show off. I’m paraphrasing: Normally, when a horse starts showing off, a trainer will treat that as disobedience that needs to be corrected. But I actually reward those moments with a treat just like I would any of the other behaviors I’m trying to reinforce. It surprises them and changes the whole tone of the training. It reinforces that training is fun and something to look forward to. One of the most obvious hidden biases in teaching and coaching is for people to ignore that we are emotional creatures. High performers have an ideal of themselves as cold-blooded killer robots, but that ideal often gets in the way of pragmatic methods of practice. Instead, try to embrace the parts of your day that are fun and make them even more fun. - - - - - #3. A “Credit Goes To” Resume. What if you rewrote your resume in terms of who invested in you or took a chance on you? [I did this](, and I loved how it reframed my own view of my career to include loads of gratitude. I’m already very familiar with how hard I’ve worked — but this gratitude and recognition of other people was a new feeling that has stuck with me. Here’s an example entry: 2005. Marc Hedlund. He took me out to Sushi and told me I should consider doing more than just programming, with this hyperbolic line, “If you can speak English and write code, then you are destined for leadership.” I told him I liked writing code and to stop meddling in my life — management was for suckers. Six months later he told Evan Williams I was a hot shit engineering manager. Who was the person who contributed the most to your career? - - - - - Tips or feedback? [Send me a response on Twitter.]( Open Opportunities: * Online event (FREE): We are doing a commencement this Monday at 10am ET for a recent class of Habit Coach Certification. The keynote speaker is Kristen Meinzer from the podcast By The Book. I've linked to their self-talk episode many times. There will be some online networking after. ( * Habit Coach Certification: Early bird pricing for the next class of Habit Coach Certification is live until the end of April. ( Don’t miss out on the other issues by Coach Tony [Become a member for $5 per month]( Did you enjoy this issue? [Yes]( [No]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( Tips, inspirations, and knowledge on productivity, happiness, health, and making an impact on our world. Official email of the Better Humans publication on Medium. (@bttrhumans) You can manage your subscription [here](. In order to unsubscribe, click [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Created with [Revue by Twitter](.