Write this week's priorities on a blank page without last…

When This Fires

• At the start of each week during planning
• When weekly priorities feel like recycled versions of previous weeks without fresh assessment
• When you suspect priority drift but can't detect it — the comparison reveals it
• Complements Before email each morning, write your ONE thing (daily ONE thing question) with the weekly-scale fresh assessment

Common Failure Mode

Copying last week's list with minor edits: "Same priorities, just update the percentages." This is anchoring, not assessment. The priorities may genuinely be the same — but you won't know until you've assessed fresh and then compared. The blank-page method ensures that this week's priorities reflect this week's reality, not last week's inertia.

The Protocol

(1) At the start of each week, open a blank page. Do NOT look at last week's priority list. (2) Write your top 3-5 priorities for this week from scratch: "What are the most important things I could accomplish this week?" (3) Only after the fresh list is complete → compare to last week's list. (4) Match: both lists align → priorities are stable. Proceed with confidence. Shift: lists differ significantly → investigate. Is the shift due to genuine environmental change? Or urgency/social pressure displacing important work? (5) If the shift is legitimate → update and proceed. If it's drift → correct back toward the genuine priorities that the fresh assessment captured.