A colleague at work, standing behind you, says “Blueberry.” What do you do? The answer to that odd question—and Max has a doozy of a story about one former co-worker’s response—depends on what you bring to the situation. Faced with ambiguous or uncertain circumstances, our expectations shape our experience of life and work. Example abound: a manager who expects a job candidate to flirt during the interview will elicit flirtatious behavior; expectations of children’s performance changes how we treat them, in turn changing their performance. Caitie guides us through an exploration of the social science of expectations, anticipation, and the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. Where does it lead—and how does the blueberry story end? Listen and find out. We promise that the answers will be . . . satisfying. (What, you expected us to say, “unexpected?” That’s what we’re talking about!)

The –isms fly fast and furious this week: racism, sexism, classism, and . . . professionalism? One of these things is not like the others—except that it often is. Much of what we talk about when we talk about professionalism is superficial and confining: modes of dress and speech that limit the scope of who should be regarded as an insider, and who we should trust with our business. But if professionalism is not a tie tack, what is it? Is there any room for standards of punctuality, respect, follow-through, and ethics? Max thinks so, but as he and Caitie wrestle with this week’s topic, only one thing becomes clear: any given standard must exclude someone or something. Perhaps the real question is this: what problem are you trying to solve when you enforce professional standards?

It’s summer in Priority Country, and life hacks are in the air! Caitie and Max share the tips and tricks that can actually tip us over into success (or at least trick us into thinking so), and review a few self-help clichés that are actually, well, helpful. This week, they run down several pieces of advice that truly did prove their worth in the crucible of daily work and life. From saving fifteen minutes at the grocery store to becoming a wealthy, successful writer for The New Yorker (or . . . not), our hosts bring us a wealth of ideas on improving our health, stress levels, and productivity. Your mileage may vary, but here’s a tip that will totally change your game: listen to this episode.

Five months into the podcast, the Priority team is starting over—or, at least, talking about starting over. Our hosts don't decide on a topic until after they start recording, and a wide-ranging discussion of fresh starts (and grocery store life hacks?) ensues. As Max points out, it's often the not-so-fresh-start, picking up the project anew each day, that gets us where we're going. Caitie agrees, and observes that so much of the magic of the fresh start is, in fact, sleight of hand. We create the illusion of change, or trick ourselves into making better choices. But whether you are after real change, or just need a momentary shot of inspiration, today's episode of Priority has something for everybody. If you're new to the show, give yourself the gift a fresh start, and listen to this one.

Thought Leader. Coopetition. Game-Changer. Best of Breed. What do they have in common? If you guessed, “Caitie loathes them,” then you would be right. The Priority team debates business buzzwords, from the dangerous and misleading to the merely vapid. “But what’s the big deal?” asks our enterprise-grade audience. Maybe we have ideated a few too many buzzwords, but so what? Isn’t leveling-up our jargon the way we demonstrate expertise and belonging? These paradigm shifts don’t grow on trees, after all! Perhaps we can debate the merits of corporatese terms like “onboarding,” but much of this language is used to obfuscate and sanitize our work life. We “reorganize” instead of conducting layoffs and claim to be “growth hackers” rather than do anything to produce growth. Jargon has its place, but watch your language―or Max will wash your mouth out . . . with business.

Caitie adds a new term to our conversation on work/life balance: cohesion. So-called experts on “business success” laud focus as the key to achievement, but they leave a lot of the details up to us. Should every role, project, contact, and hobby support some central mission? Or should your hobbies give you a much-needed break and keep you from burning out on that mission? A cohesive plan may get you where you’re going—as Max points out, you’re unlikely to grow up to be an NFL quarterback if you’re also the quarterback of jazz band. But how many of us stuck to plans we made as freshmen? The Priority team’s bottom line on cohesion, typically, isn’t completely coherent. Whether you go all-in on one big thing or wear many hats, you make tradeoffs between power and flexibility (and maybe sanity).

How many hats do you wear? How many plates are you spinning? How many metaphors can Max force into this episode synopsis? Continuing the productivity arc of the past two weeks, the Priority team tackles the hot-button issue of Work/Life Balance. Caitie doesn’t love the term, or the way it pre-frames the conversation in listeners’ minds. But whatever we decide to call it—Max likes “sustainability,” while Caitie speaks of “self-care,” and you may prefer to call it “Al”*—the conversation is critical. Whether you’re putting in 80-hour workweeks or simply playing too many roles, the best time to think about balance is now. The alternative is being stretched so thin you’re no longer even there.

As Caitie's move progresses to the unpacking phase, Max asks a timely question: "At any given moment, how do you know what to work on?" The Priority team proceeds to drop some serious to-do list science. Max can't remember what David Allen's "Four Criteria Model for Choosing Actions in the Moment" is called, but he recites it perfectly. Given Caitie's current project, the discussion turns to prioritizing tasks in less-than-optimal circumstances—with more to do than you can do, and when facing exhaustion or overwhelm. But despite the name of the podcast, it's not really about "setting priorities," per se. Not all actions are equal, but checking off even the lowest-priority task beats doing nothing. After all, it all has to get unpacked sooner or later (just don't use that example with Caitie for a week or two. Touchy subject).

While packing to move, Caitie unearths a stack of old day planners, inspiring the Priority team to contemplate personal organizing systems. What makes a planner effective? The choice between boring, analog paper or digital clouds of Google magic is a personal preference—do you want everything in one place, or everything in every place? And who do you trust with your data? Of course, it also matters what you write in your planner. Max asserts that many of these issues become non-issues if you are not especially attached to your lists. And, as the team hinted way back in Episode No. 5, writing to-do items that Future You will understand is key. For instance, what did Caitie mean when she wrote “Research Jedi body question” on her task list? (Hint: it’s probably not about developing Jedi abs).

How do you know when your project is done? David Allen suggests that “the way you get things done is you define what done means, and you define what doing looks like.” The team discusses the project management triangle, in which the constraints of time, budget, and scope are balanced against each other. Caitie agrees that we need to know what done means and what the constraints are, as every project could be polished forever without ever quite reaching “perfect.”