How I Decide What Deserves My Attention
Sometimes the problem is not distraction.
It is changing priorities.
A message comes in.
A new request appears.
An idea feels urgent.
Something else looks more important.
So I keep adjusting what I’m working on.
By the end of the day, I’ve done many things —
but finished nothing meaningful.
The problem wasn’t workload.
It was unstable attention.
When priorities keep shifting,
attention never settles long enough to do deep work.
That’s not responsiveness.
That’s quiet drift.
The AIYING move I use
I don’t ask, “What is most urgent right now?”
I ask this instead:
“What did I decide was important before this interruption?”
Sometimes I add:
“Does this new thing truly change that?”
That’s all.
Why this works
This question reconnects me to my earlier intent.
I stop reacting to every new input.
I start protecting what I had already chosen.
AI helps me evaluate urgency —
but I decide stability.
What actually changed for me
I stopped feeling pulled in many directions.
I started finishing what I began.
Work felt steady — not constantly redirected.
Try this today
The next time something interrupts your flow, pause.
Ask:
Does this really change what I had already decided to focus on?
Then continue.
Clarity is a practice. AI is a participant.
This post is part of AIYING — The Discipline of Accomplishing with AI.
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