I keep a daily journal where I track what I need to do, what I actually did, and my energy levels through the day. I call unfinished tasks “open windows”, things that are still occupying some part of my attention.
A couple of days back, I did a small exercise. I tagged each “open window” as either something I had initiated or something I was responding to because someone else had initiated it.
A clear pattern emerged.
I am most energized on days when I am working on something I have chosen to create, an idea, a solution, a conversation, a plan that moves a vision forward.
I am far less energized when the day disappears into simply reacting, processing what lands in front of me without ever making it my own.
Perhaps motivation is closely linked to agency.
And agency is not about escaping other people’s priorities. Most of us cannot. If your boss sets the goal, that goal is yours to deliver. But there is a difference between mechanically doing what you were told and taking real ownership of it, bringing your own thinking to how it gets done, deciding what it becomes.
The moment you truly own something, you are no longer just responding to it. You are creating.
The task may be handed to you. What you make of it is yours.
Responding keeps things moving.
Creating gives you energy.
Ownership is what turns one into the other.