Wandering through an arcade in the 1980s, you would have come across Whack-A-Mole. A simple wooden cabinet with a padded mallet, five or six holes, and mischievous moles popping their heads up just long enough to get smacked. The rules were simple—hit the mole before it disappeared. The faster you reacted, the higher your score.
It was addictive. Lights flashed, bells rang, you reached for the high score, and you walked away with a little dopamine buzz from having “won.”
The catch? No matter how many you hit, there was always another mole.
Why Whack-A-Mole Hooked Our Brains
Neuroscience helps explain why this arcade relic was so popular. Each time you struck a mole, your brain’s reward system released a small surge of dopamine. This is the same circuitry that reinforces habits—reward following effort. The unpredictability of when and where the mole would appear made the game even more compelling. Psychologists call this a variable reward schedule, the same mechanism that makes slot machines or social media feeds hard to resist (Skinner, 1953; Schultz, 2016).
But just like in business, the game was endless. No matter how fast you were, there was no “finishing”—only the next mole.
The Business Owner’s Arcade Game
As a business owner and leader, I’ve often felt like my business was that arcade cabinet. Emails, texts, fires to put out, opportunities to chase—they all pop up randomly and demand attention. At first, responding quickly feels satisfying. You’re “on top of it.” But over time, that constant vigilance wears you down.
When we juggle too many tasks, we experience cognitive overload. The prefrontal cortex—the brain’s “executive center”—gets flooded, reducing clarity, slowing decisions, and increasing stress (Mark, Gudith, & Klocke, 2008). Motivation drops when we collect more tasks than we can realistically complete, because our brains perceive the backlog as failure. Instead of progress, we feel buried.
What I Learned About Priorities vs. Priority
In my own businesses, I wrestled with this balance. What do I keep on my desk? What do I delegate? And most importantly, how do I set goals when the environment keeps shifting?
I found that holding too tightly to long-term goals could actually stall progress. The market moved, customers shifted, and if I clung to yesterday’s plan, I missed today’s opportunity. What worked better was this:
- Vision for the long-term. A clear sense of direction, even if the path twists.
- Short-term goals. Setting goals in smaller increments made them achievable and relevant to the moment.
- Incremental changes. These often led to faster evolution than grand strategic leaps.
The science backs this up. Studies on goal-setting show that shorter time frames increase engagement because the brain perceives the finish line as reachable (Locke & Latham, 2002). Too long a horizon, and the goal feels abstract, disconnected from daily action. Think Pareto principle here.
From Priorities to Priority
Here’s a simple shift that can save you from the Whack-A-Mole trap: change your language. Stop saying “priorities.” Start saying “priority.”
At most, have one or two priorities for the day. Everything else can be framed as goals or tasks. That one priority is the mole worth hitting; the rest can wait their turn. When you communicate with your team, this clarity creates alignment. People know what matters most right now, instead of guessing which of ten “top priorities” they should chase. Think Pareto principle here.
The Long Game
Whack-A-Mole is fun in an arcade. But leadership isn’t an arcade game. If you try to keep every mole down, you’ll burn out. If you pick your one priority, you’ll create momentum, clarity, and progress.
So tomorrow, when you feel like you’re standing at that arcade cabinet with a mallet in hand, pause. Ask yourself:
- What is the most important thing right now?
- If I’m tempted to list five, which one will truly move us forward?
That one becomes your priority. Everything else? They’re just moles in waiting.
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