Notice where your mind goes when you’re doing dishes or driving. That’s where your real priorities live.

Your mind returns to whatever it has unfinished business with, most freely when your hands are busy with something automatic. Dishes and driving occupy just enough of you to stop the deliberate thinking, which lets the real priorities come forward: a person, a decision, a plan you have not admitted to. That drift is a better list than one you would write on purpose.

Pay attention this week to where it goes while you are doing something dull. Note the top two by Friday. Then ask whether your days reflect them at all, because if your mind keeps going somewhere your week never does, something needs adjusting.