This issue marks three full years of this newsletter. It's a significant milestone, and I'm thankful to everyone who's been a loyal subscriber. I look forward to sending this out every month and I appreciate everyone who reads this.

In this final issue of 2024, you'll explore one of the most crucial skills you can build to grow your career: the skill of discernment. You'll look at it through the lens of prioritizing your work to identify what's most important.

But first...

Things To Explore

• Front Matter is a headless CMS that works with Hugo, Docusaurus, and many other static site generators. It's a VSCode plugin that lets you work with your site and its contents like in a traditional CMS.
• This repository of falsehoods for programmers is a great resource to rethink some assumptions you may have picked up over the years. Falsehoods about Names is on the list, and if you haven't read it yet, you should.

Discernment and Prioritization

You might love solving tough technical problems or brainstorming new pieces of content, but if you spend most of your day scrambling to answer emails and Slack messages, that constant mismatch drains your energy, leaving you feeling stuck and overworked.

People don't burn out because they're overloaded. They burn out because their work doesn't match the kind of work they find meaningful or energizing.

But burnout isn't the only thing you should worry about; if you're looking to grow in your career, you have to be able to determine what work is important to the organization so that when you're putting in effort, it's meaningful.

To do this, you need to develop the skill of discernment, which is the ability to separate what truly matters from the noise. When you hone this skill, you do less reactive busy work and more of the kind of work that makes a real impact on your team and your career.

What Is Discernment?

Discernment is the ability to judge well. When it comes to workload, It's about knowing which tasks will have the biggest impact on your growth, your team, and your company--and then focusing on those tasks. It means learning to distinguish between "urgent" stuff and the "critical" stuff that truly drives results. It's also about alignment: when you say "yes" to projects that match both your organization's priorities and your own strengths, you're naturally more engaged and effective.

People who don't cultivate this skill often stay stuck in "busy mode." If you want to grow, you have to figure out how to build discernment so you're spending your time on high-value projects.

Reactivity is a Trap

Picture this: You grab your morning coffee and jump on the computer, where you're greeted with a flood of emails and Slack messages from your team and other stakeholders. You start answering them one by one, feeling "productive" as you watch the unread count go down. Before you know it, it's time for lunch, and you realize you haven't made any headway on the major project that actually needs your attention.

That's the trap of reactivity: you respond to every request in the moment, even if it pulls you away from what you do best or from the tasks with the biggest payoff. Senior professionals rarely fall into that trap. They're intentional. They know spending two hours in "deep work" on a crucial project can produce far more value than a day spent chasing every ping.

Watch out for these three sure signs that you're in a reactive mode at work:

• Constant context-switching: You jump from Slack to email to random requests, never finishing any deep work.
• Busy yet unfocused: You're working hard all day but can't point to what you truly accomplished.
• Drained by the end of the day: You've put in effort, but not on tasks that energize you or move the needle.

When you say "yes" to every random request, you spread yourself thin without maximizing your value.

Effort Is Not Impact

Many people equate "effort" with "achievement." But if your efforts aren't aligned with what truly matters, you're just treading water.

Here are common ways I've seen people work hard, putting in ridiculous effort but having no impact:

• Answering every Slack message in real-time: It feels like you're staying on top of things, but you never get to your core project.
• Accepting every meeting invite: You spend more time talking about work than doing it.
• Taking on tasks misaligned with your strengths: You're working hard but not seeing results because the tasks don't leverage your real expertise.

So, how do you get out of this mode? Start by recognizing what's important.

How to Build Discernment

Knowing you need to be intentional and that you should "prioritize" won't necessarily help you see what to prioritize. Growing discernment is about asking better questions and developing a framework to separate high-impact tasks from the noise. Here are some ways to do that:

First, understand the bigger picture. You can't discern what's important if you don't understand:

• Your organization's priorities: Which projects or objectives are top-of-mind for leadership?
• Your team's goals: What does success look like this quarter? Where is the team focusing its efforts?
• Your personal strengths and career targets: What are you really good at, and what do you want to be known for?

Whenever you face a new request, ask, "Does this align with at least one of these things?" If the answer is no, it's a candidate for delegation or saying "no."

Second, adopt a framework to categorize requests based on importance. I use the Eisenhower Matrix to help, and I explained how in a previous issue.

Discernment is a skill that grows with practice, reflection, and adjustment. Here are some concrete steps for turning discernment into daily practice:

Prioritize critical tasks first.

Every morning, identify the top three things you must accomplish that day. Ask yourself, "If I do only these three things, will I have made real progress?" Focusing on a handful of high-impact tasks makes you far less likely to get lost in reactive mode. This doesn't mean you ignore your inbox completely--it just ensures that the truly important work happens first.

When you're looking at everything you must do, ask yourself: "What's the consequence of not doing this right away?" If there's no real downside, it's probably not a priority.

Schedule deep work

Once you know your highest-priority deliverables, block off time to focus and work on getting those done. Find a couple hours in the day when you have the most mental energy. Schedule a meeting with yourself, turn off notifications, and focus on those top three priorities.

Once the block is over, you can catch up on Slack and emails. You'll be amazed at how much more you get done.

For this to work, communication is key. Let your team and manager know what you're doing during that deep-work time, keep it limited to a reasonable time box, and ensure they know you'll respond to anything they need once your work session is over.

Take charge of your time

You don't need to accept every meeting invite or respond to every request instantly. Not every ping is urgent, and you probably feel pressure that isn't really there. Triage the requests and prioritize them later.

Think about the most senior people in your organization; they probably aren't going respond immediately to your Slack message, and they certainly aren't going to meet with you today about something. They'll schedule it. Out of the 15 important things they have to think about, your thing probably isn't on their radar. You have to adopt that mindset.

When it comes to meetings, look at the agenda; if you're not central to the discussion or decision, consider opting out. Ask the meeting organizer why they asked for your involvement in the first place. Sometimes, people invite subject-matter experts "just in case" or out of courtesy. You'd be surprised how often you can negotiate your way out of a meeting.

Say no when it makes sense

You're not great at everything, so you have to play to your strengths. Focus as much as you can on the things you're really good at. Delegate or negotiate tasks that don't match your core skill set whenever possible.

There will be times when your manager or team needs you to do something that doesn't feel aligned, and you should do that from time to time. But I have seen a lot of people volunteering to do a lot of busy work that others could do just as well.

When you see work that needs to be done, ask yourself if you really are the best person to do it. If you are, prioritize it appropriately. But delegate it if you can. It's fine to be the one who takes out the trash once in a while, but if you're always doing it, you're now doing a different job than you should be doing.

Reflect and Refine

It's important to reflect on how things are going so you can adjust. Take ten minutes to reflect at the end of each day or week. Ask yourself these questions:

• Did I work on tasks that align with my passions and the team's top goals?
• Where did I spend time on low-impact "busywork"?
• How can I adjust my approach tomorrow or next week?

These short reflections help you notice when you're drifting into reactive patterns or taking on projects that sap your energy. Over time, this feedback loop tightens, making it easier to keep your work aligned with your strengths.

You don't have to wait for someone else to give you permission to work this way. Start small: pick your three must-dos each morning, schedule deep work sessions, and reflect on what went well and what didn't. As you refine your discernment, you'll find that you're delivering more value while feeling less stressed. That's the real hallmark of a professional who's stepping into senior-level territory.

Discernment isn't a one-time switch; it's a continuous practice that will evolve alongside your career. Building your discernment skill positions you as a high-impact contributor. Instead of racing to clear every notification, you choose tasks that match your unique strengths and the team's biggest needs.

For another take on discernment, read this article in Forbes to understand how discernment is a crucial skill for any decision maker.

Parting Thoughts

• What's blocking you from delegating some of the things on your list of tasks at work?
• What's preventing you from blocking off time for deep work? What are you most afraid will happen if you do? Is this real or something you perceive?

Thanks for reading. See you next issue!

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