There is the well-known story of fitting large stones, pebbles and sand into a jar. If you start with the sand and then add the pebbles, there is no space left for the large stones. Instead, you need to first get the large stones in the jar, then the pebbles and only then pour the sand into it. There is a form of intellectual laziness that matches the metaphor. We take on all the small tasks early in the morning so that we get small dopamine kicks every time we send an email, book a trip, pay a bill or check in with a customer. The risk is, of course, that the big projects that will really move the needle for you don’t get space in the day as you have frittered your time away with small, urgent, but largely unimportant tasks. Being as susceptible to this as the next person, my habit is to identify three big “stones” while journaling early in the morning and then to start my day with those. Email comes later that way. What fits in your jar? Are you accomplishing the big goals that you set for yourself?