Last week, I traveled to Houston and Dallas with my eldest son for the FIFA Club World Cup. He was especially excited because we were seeing Cristiano Ronaldo play, and thanks to my cousin (who works at Visa), we got access to an incredible field-level experience for a prior match. It felt like the perfect father-son trip... until our flight was canceled.

As we stood in a crowded airport at 3 a.m., surrounded by hundreds of passengers trying to rebook, I found myself explaining to my almost-nine-year-old son that there are things we simply cannot control. A mechanical issue with an airplane isn't one of them. What we could control was how quickly we reacted. So we ran to the gate where we needed to re-book our flight. We made it to the front of the line, found another flight, and eventually arrived five hours late. Unfortunately, those five hours happened to include the first match.

Ironically, that lesson kept repeating itself throughout the trip. We couldn't control canceled flights, match results, or Cristiano Ronaldo's elimination. But we could control our attitude, our decisions, and how much we enjoyed everything else... from NASA and the Fan Fest to Fourth of July fireworks and the match in Dallas. It reminded me that it's all about investing our energy where it can actually make a difference, and as I was constantly reminded of this, I wanted to share this with you today.

Tip of the Week: Whenever something goes wrong, ask yourself one question: "What is still under my control?" Then spend your energy there instead of fighting reality.

Side Note: Our daily communication (emails, DMs) overflow can actually be within your circle of control.

That’s exactly why I created the Effective Workload Management Systems course, a proven framework to help you take back control of your inbox, design repeatable email workflows, and stay on top of your priorities without constantly reacting. It’s been refined with input from over 70,000 Amazonians, and it’s helped thousands finally get to inbox zero (and actually stay there). If you’re serious about cleaning up your inbox for good (not just this week) start there.

The Theory Behind

The oldest productivity lesson may actually come from ancient philosophy. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Stoic philosopher Epictetus wrote that some things are up to us, and others are not. Our effort, preparation, decisions, and attitude belong to the first category. Weather, traffic, other people's choices, mechanical failures, and even many outcomes belong to the second. According to the Stoics, much of our frustration comes from confusing these two groups and trying to control things that never belonged to us in the first place.

Modern leadership teaches the same idea using different language. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey describes the Circles of Control, Concern and Influence. We all care about many things, but only a subset can actually be controlled or influenced by our actions. Highly effective people deliberately spend more time inside their Circles of Control and Influence. Similarly, psychologist Julian Rotter's research on Locus of Control found that people who focus on what they can influence tend to be more resilient, proactive, and successful than those who attribute most outcomes to external forces.

High performers build systems around controllable actions, not uncontrollable outcomes. Sports psychologists encourage athletes to focus on process goals instead of outcome goals (at Amazon we called this inputs vs. outputs). You can't fully control winning a championship, but you can control today's training session. James Clear makes a similar point in Atomic Habits: goals describe the results we want, while systems describe the actions we repeat. Outcomes will always involve uncertainty; systems allow us to make progress regardless of what happens around us.

What I’ve Learned

You can't eliminate uncertainty, but you can prepare for it. Looking back, we still lost the experience we had planned for, and Cristiano Ronaldo still lost his match. But those moments ended up becoming a small part of what was otherwise an unforgettable father-son trip. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we can't design a system to prevent uncertainty, but we can be prepared on how we'll respond well when uncertainty inevitably arrives.

Make It Happen

1. Separate the facts from the frustration. When something unexpected happens, make two quick (mental) lists: what you can control and what you cannot.

2. Take the first controllable action immediately. Instead of replaying what went wrong, identify the next action that moves the situation forward.

3. Prepare for common disruptions. Whether you're traveling, leading a project, or managing your workload, expect that something won't go according to plan. Build buffers (instead of perfect plans).

4. Ask one question regularly: "Where am I spending energy on things I can't control?" Then redirect that energy toward something you actually can influence.

5. Teach the concept to someone else. Explaining the difference between controllables and uncontrollables to a teammate, a colleague, or even your children is one of the fastest ways to internalize it yourself.

You can't control flight cancellations... but apparently you can convince an eight-year-old to sprint through an airport at 3 a.m.

Controllably yours,

Jorge Luis Pando

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