Want to know someone’s priorities? Ignore what they say. Look at where their free time goes.

Stated priorities are partly aspiration and partly what sounds good out loud, which makes them unreliable without anyone being dishonest. Free time is the real ledger, because it is the one resource nobody is forcing anyone to spend. Where it goes shows what a person chooses when there is nothing to perform.

Try the test on yourself first, and read the answer without arguing with it. Then apply it gently to other people, especially anyone making promises. What they do with a free Saturday tells you more about what to expect than any amount of conversation.