The Hidden Biases That Hijack Your Prioritization
AIDAS BENDORAITIS / APRIL 18, 2025
Reading time: 3 minutes.
You’re smart. Thoughtful. Possibly armed with a Notion dashboard, a color-coded to-do list, and a half-read book on decision theory. But let’s be honest—sometimes, your priorities still betray you. It’s not that you don’t know what matters. It’s that something quieter, sneakier, and more primitive is whispering in your mental ear: bias.
Yes, even the most rational of minds are full of strange distortions when it comes to deciding what to do next.
Let’s unravel them.
1. Recency Bias: The Tyranny of the Latest Thing
Your brain, like your phone, loves whatever just pinged it. A new Slack message? Shiny. That email from a client? Pressing. But is it actually more important than the thing you planned to work on this morning?
Your mind is like a dog chasing the most recent squirrel. Left unchecked, recency bias turns your week into a twitchy series of pivots.
Fix: Ask, “Is this important, or just recent?”
2. Urgency Bias: When the Bark is Louder Than the Bite
Ever feel weirdly compelled to fix that one broken thing or reply to that one person even though it doesn’t actually move your goals forward?
That’s urgency bias. It’s what happens when you confuse “must do it now” with “must do it at all.” We inherit this from ancient humans who responded to threats fast… or didn’t survive to prioritize again.
Fix: Try the Eisenhower Matrix—if it’s urgent but not important, maybe don’t do it. Or delegate it. Or make coffee and wait for the panic to fade.
3. Loss Aversion: Dodging Ghosts
We fear loss more than we value gain. That’s why you might over-prioritize hanging onto a failing project, just because you’ve already sunk weeks into it.
It’s not logic—it’s emotional debt collection.
Fix: Ask yourself, “If I weren’t already involved, would I choose this today?”
4. Overconfidence Bias: Yes, You Are the Bottleneck
You think you’ll write that newsletter, update the landing page, answer 27 emails, and meditate… all before lunch.
No shade—you’re ambitious. But overconfidence bias turns your calendar into fiction.
Fix: Track how long things actually take. Reality is humbling. Also freeing.
5. Emotional Attachment: The Ex You Can’t Ghost
Sometimes, you’ve poured your soul into a project. You love it. But it’s not serving you anymore. Still, you keep prioritizing it.
This is the sunk-cost fallacy in disguise. It's nostalgia. Pride. Ego.
Fix: Detach. Marie Kondo it. “Does this still spark momentum?”
6. Social Comparison: The Invisible Influence
Maybe you saw a tweet that said “AI agents will replace 90% of workers,” and suddenly you’re reprioritizing your roadmap around agentic workflows. Or maybe you’re prioritizing that startup idea because your friend just got funded.
That’s not prioritization. That’s FOMO with a productivity mask.
Fix: Tune out the noise. Your path ≠ their path.
7. Avoidance Bias: The Real Boss Battle
You know what matters. But it’s hard. Uncomfortable. Slightly terrifying.
So you choose the easy wins: reorganize folders, tweak your logo, clear your inbox.
Avoidance bias is the brain’s way of saying, “Let’s do anything but that scary thing that actually matters.”
Fix: Name the resistance. Break the task into laughably small chunks. Start anyway.
8. Measurability Bias: Because Progress Feels Nice
You check off 10 tiny tasks and feel productive. But that deep, non-quantifiable work? It waits.
We prioritize what’s easy to measure—not what’s meaningful.
Fix: Track outcomes, not actions. Don’t confuse movement with progress.
9. Novelty Bias: The Shiny Object Siren Song
New idea? Immediate dopamine. Your brain lights up like Times Square. Suddenly, your old priorities look... meh.
This is how you collect half-built side projects and unopened domains.
Fix: Keep a “Someday” list. Let ideas marinate. If they’re still exciting next week, revisit.
10. Planning Fallacy: The Timeline Lie
You think something will take two hours. It takes five. Every. Single. Time.
Blame the planning fallacy. Your brain is optimistic when estimating effort—like a golden retriever planning a road trip.
Fix: Multiply your time estimates by 1.5 (or 2). Trust your past, not your gut.
So What Now?
Prioritization isn’t just logic. It’s psychology, neuroscience, even philosophy. It’s a quiet standoff between your rational mind and your survival instincts. The one that maps out long-term goals vs. the one that shouts, 'Now! Urgent! Run!' Guess who usually speaks louder?
But the more you understand your biases, the better your decisions become.
Not perfect. But better.
And that’s progress worth prioritizing.
Cover picture by Marta Nogueira