Suggest edit — critical-path

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# critical path

"is this critical path?" — the core prioritization question. simple to ask, hard to follow.

## the question

before starting any task, ask: is this on the critical path to the thing that actually matters? if not, why am i doing it?

## why it gets ignored

the honest answer is usually pleasure. something is fun, or it's easy, or it feels productive. working on a side project was "pretty short sighted and approval seeking; took the easiest thing on the list." the critical path question gets overridden by whatever feels good in the moment.

this connects directly to [[narratives]] — with an excited narrative, i *want* to work on the critical path. without one, i drift to whatever is most gratifying.

## the efficiency trap

a CEO i worked with put it well: "productivity is output / time. not how productive you feel." and even sharper: "efficiency is |output|/time. most of the time |output| is in a direction nobody cares about."

you can be incredibly efficient at something that doesn't matter. the critical path question catches this — it's not about how fast you're going, it's about whether you're going in the right direction.

## wasted setup time

"wasted a lot of time on setup that didn't matter — ditching them feels so good." sometimes the critical path means abandoning work you already invested in. sunk cost is real.

## too fixated vs. too scattered

there's a tension: "too fixated on doing a single thing — can start 1-3 things and have fun." critical path thinking can make you too rigid. the 80-15-5 rule from [[startup-workflow]] addresses this — 80% mission-focused, 15% slightly tangential, 5% something completely whacky.

monotony is the death of creativity and [[intentionality]]. the solution isn't to abandon critical path thinking but to build in structured space for exploration.

## applying it

periodic check-ins with yourself (see [[operation-optimization]]). stop, ask: is what i'm doing right now the most important thing? if not, why? sometimes the answer is "because i need a break" and that's fine — see [[resets]]. sometimes the answer reveals drift.