The article suggests that the inability to prioritize effectively can be caused by a lack of clear priorities and an overabundance of work in progress (WIP). The author suggests that to escape this trap, you should lower expectations and make hard decisions about cutting WIP. He suggests focusing on two meta-priorities: keeping the lights on and making it cheaper and cutting the entire roadmap of new features down to one thing at a time. He also suggests designating a lead to actively seek out and reduce the highest on-call and support burdens on the team and measuring and reducing the highest maintenance costs. The idea is to focus on the most important tasks and minimize distractions to increase efficiency and productivity.