# Agrawal protects proactive work with three daily priorities

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/agrawal-protects-proactive-work-with-three-daily-priorities/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Parag Agrawal](https://realalpha.app/builders/parag-agrawal/) · Parag Agrawal is founder and CEO of Parallel, former CEO of Twitter. · Founded Parallel Web Systems, which builds agentic web search for AI agents; former Twitter CEO.
- Host: [Joubin Mirzadegan](https://realalpha.app/people/joubin-mirzadegan/) · Partner, Kleiner Perkins · Took Palo Alto Networks' cloud business from $2M to $50M+ ARR in a year.
- Show: Grit
- Episode: [Ex-Twitter CEO on Why AI Needs a New Internet | Parag Agrawal](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/), Jul 27, 2026
- Moment: 2:49 to 6:29 of the episode (4 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/agrawal-protects-proactive-work-with-three-daily-priorities/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=169

## Quote

> “But I'll write three things down and I will make sure **those three things get done**.”
> — [Parag Agrawal](https://realalpha.app/builders/parag-agrawal/) at [5:22](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=322) · Grit

## Takeaways

1. Read email first, but respond in a separate work cycle.
2. Set three proactive priorities before reactive tasks take over.
3. Let lower-priority items risk dropping instead of ranking everything.

## About this segment

He separates reading email from responding, then writes down three proactive tasks to finish. The rule protects planned work without requiring him to rank every incoming request.

From “Ex-Twitter CEO on Why AI Needs a New Internet | Parag Agrawal”, Jul 27, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/)

## Transcript

From the transcript Grit publishes with the episode.

[2:55](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=175) We're already live. We just go. Just go. No no, no. So I am there. So I'm the kind that is extraordinarily comfortable dropping balls. And I don't know if I should say this in front of my board, but, like, I drop balls all the time, and so there'll be, like, a bunch of things. I'll come at me. But every week, every day I have like a few things that I care about or that matter. And I'm just going to do those things and there'll be a bunch of other balls that are less important that I will drop. And I think ultimately catch them, though, right? No. Someone will. Someone will. I am betting that my team, because I drop balls, is just built in the structure of evolving to catch the balls I drop. And so now you build this sort of culture, this team where.

[3:43](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=223) And if it's important enough, it's going to come back to me. It's going to bounce back to me. What if the ball that is dropped is only known to you? You know that is a problem and you don't drop those ones. So you again. You don't get to drop random balls. Yeah, you drop the balls. You can drop partly by design. So you have to prioritize the ones that you don't drop. How many tiers of memory do you have. So you have cash. And then the second tier I have a hard disk drive. You know, you have a flash memory in between. Uh, I think it's like. A list of three things every week. Every day.

[4:18](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=258) It's like three things. Can you give an example of what I would be surprised that you're dropping, that you're willing to drop? Like, what are some balls that you're like, yep. No problem. Let's see if it bounces back there hard, like in the moment that you're like, oh, I really don't. I should respond to this, but I can't because it's not the most important thing. So it's it's you think it would be that deliberate and intentional a process? It's not right. It is more that like for example, I separate out reading and responding to emails, the two different work cycles for me. But instead of sitting down and trying to respond to emails, I read all emails. Then I sit down in the morning and I'm like, okay, what are the three things this week? Or what are the three things today that I need to proactively do? And a

[5:12](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=312) bunch of things you do reactively, but you can't let the reactive stuff swarm the proactive stuff. And so I'll write down these proactive things, and they're informed by the things that are in the back of my mind because I've been reading emails, because I've been thinking, because I've been doing stuff, because I've been hacking. Right. But I'll write three things down and I will make sure those three things get done. Now, other things, almost by definition, have a risk of getting dropped. Now I'll try to go skim at my. I reread my email all the time and if it's important enough, it is bubble into the top three and make its cut. So I'm not making the decision that I'm going to drop this ball. I am making the decision that it like, which is like. And I'm not even making the decision. This is not in the top three. But then when you do the top three, you're

[5:59](https://realalpha.app/v/2IgMbFmWbok/?t=359) not looking at your inbox. If something was important enough, it better stick in your head as being an important enough upside opportunity, downside protection opportunity. Something should do. And so those are the three things that I must do. Now I have time beyond doing those three things. And so I will go respond to a lot more emails. But then I'm not like some machine trying to prioritize every decision because that's exhausting too. Okay. Can you when you were when