This would be a sort of dance between the user and the interface. Sometimes the interface and the user are in exact agreement, the highest priority activities are also the ones you haven’t made progress on recently and are the activities you are gravitating towards anyways. Sometimes the user simply isn’t in the mood to do the work that the interface is suggesting is highest priority, and the user can opt for a different task, albeit with a bit more effort than if the user were to do the highest priority work.