I Have Too Many Things to Work On. So What Actually Comes First?

I have a ridiculous number of things I could be working on. There is the full-time job. There is family life with two kids. There is my obrt. There is a main client that can sometimes feel like another full-time job, including the occasional weekend.

Then there are all the things I actually want to build. BigCommerce apps. WordPress plugins. Android updates. A new Shopify partnership. A Shopify app. At some point I also decided a Discord bot sounded like a good idea.

So yes, "too many things to work on" is probably fair.

The funny thing is that choosing what comes next is not usually about productivity systems for me. Most of the time, the first layer of priority is already decided before I even sit down.

Family comes first, but money is part of that

I would say family comes first. That does not mean ignoring work to spend every available minute doing family things. Work is part of taking care of your family too. The job pays for the house, the food, the kids, the boring monthly things nobody gets excited about buying. So financial responsibility ends up being the first practical filter.

The main job comes first because it has to. Then the work that already has obligations attached to it: client work, things somebody is waiting on, things that actually pay.

It is not particularly romantic, but neither is running out of grocery money because I decided today was the perfect day to prototype a Discord adventure game.

Once the important things are handled, the equation changes

This is where I think prioritisation gets more interesting. If the important work is covered, the bills are paid, the week's main responsibilities are under control and I still have a few hours left, I stop asking what is the most important thing I could possibly do, and start asking what I actually want to do.

That matters.

There is always another theoretically productive thing available. Another app could be built. Another page could be improved. Another business idea could be tested. If every spare hour is allocated according to its theoretical financial return, eventually you have just created another job for yourself.

Sometimes I want to build something new because building something new is fun. Maybe that app never earns anything. Fine. The groceries are paid for.

Sometimes helping somebody wins

There is another category that can beat the business ideas too: helping somebody. If I have a small piece of work I can do for someone like Nikolina Rose, I might decide that matters more to me that evening than adding another feature to an app.

Could I spend those same hours building something with a theoretical chance of making money later? Sure. But the app might make absolutely nothing. Meanwhile I can solve a real problem for a real person today and maybe put a smile on their face. There is value in that too. Not everything has to become a revenue optimisation exercise.

My priority list is basically two different lists

I suppose that means I do not really have one priority system. I have two.

The first one is responsibility: family → income → commitments → things people are waiting on. That part is fairly rigid.

Then, once those things are under control, there is another list: what sounds interesting? What would I enjoy building? Who could I help? That one can change completely from day to day, and I think that is probably healthier than pretending every hour has to serve one giant five-year strategy.

I still want to build businesses. I still want apps that make money while I sleep. I still have far too many projects. But once the important things are taken care of, sometimes the best thing to work on is simply the thing that makes you want to sit down and make something.