What are your Top Three?

I just read Eating: It’s Nice by Apis Necros, and there’s an excellent quote here:

The Top Three things you care about are where most of your attention is going to go, and you only have so much attention to give. So give yourself grace, and accept that some things may not be as important to you as you may think.

This is so smart. I see it as a slightly more concrete version of Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 Weeks message, which says that our time is even more finite than we like to think. As a result, we can’t just sacrifice stuff we don’t want to do; we also have to compromise on some of the things we really do want to do.

At any given time, I can tell myself that I really care about any of the following:

It’s probably helpful to reflect every so often on what my Top Three areas of attention are at the moment, and whether that’s different from what I’d like them to be.

Right now, I feel like I’m paying most attention to, in no particular order:

Honestly, this probably changes at least every couple of weeks, but this is where I am right now, on 9th May 2026. And it feels about right to me for now.

Do I wish I had more energy to focus on other things? Yes. In particular, I feel like I’m neglecting Fitness at the moment. But I can’t do everything all the time. Am I really prepared to sacrifice any of my current Top Three to make more time for Fitness? Probably not!

It’s pretty hard to accept that I might not have the capacity for everything I want to do. And it’s the sort of thing I will need to remind myself about frequently. Perhaps I can build in a “Top Three” reflection into my weekly/monthly review rituals. If nothing else, it’s a great exercise in humility, and being kind to myself.