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Life is Better with Turkey and Gravy
A new way to think about priorities
Peter DePaulo
October 19, 2023
Hello fellow Sophonauts!
We have a new trick over here at Sophonaut for getting stuff done. I'm calling it the Thanksgiving method of priorities. Things are picking up over here--and it's amazing--but has created problems of abundance. We have so much to do and all of it is important. Enter the metaphor of the Thanksgiving Meal.
Yummmmmmmmmm
We were having this problem of ending the day having done a whole lot and not being able to articulate specifically what things we got done. It was really frustrating. I know I was answering emails, doing research, knocking out tasks, but none of it really felt satisfying.
This is where the metaphor comes in: when you sit down to eat a big Thanksgiving meal, you want the perfect ratio of turkey to gravy. Turkey with no gravy? No thanks. Gravy with no turkey? Who doesn't want to drink a bunch of that bird sauce? But also, no thanks.
When you sit down to set up your tasks for the day, you can categorize tasks as Turkey tasks or Gravy tasks. Turkey tasks are bigger, and probably more important, but a little boring. Gravy tasks fill the cracks and spice things up, but you do too much then you're not really eating a meal, you're just drinking gravy.
Turkey tasks look like getting a project proposal written, an invoice filled out, or uh.. writing a newsletter. Gravy tasks are things like trying out new tools/apps, doing exploratory research, or small easy wins like returning one important email.
You can see that balancing the Turkey and Gravy tasks makes prioritizing easier and more nuanced than "make a list, order it and execute." Conventional prioritization sounds like a Turkey task to me. What do you think? Oh, and for the vegans out there - Tofurky tasks and Meat Free Gravy tasks work too. I'm hungry now.
Bite the bullets: all the stuff we want to share.
The app: learn about your personality. You should know that this is going to soon be integrated into the new product! If you want to get in on the free version, don’t hesitate
Check out the app: app.sophonaut.com/testprep
Our Discord: if you want to talk to people about personality/behavior.
We've started onboarding coaches!
it's really important to us that the first coaches are aligned with the mission.
Email me if you want to apply: [email protected]
We've started on the new product!
I wish I could tell you about it, but stay tuned. It's going to be rad, and probably coming out closer to when we're actually chowing down on Turkey and Gravy.
Also, here is a more October appropriate TikTok meme:
That’s it, go back to whatever you’re procrastinating!
Peter DePaulo, Co-founder