Your Priority Centered Life

About Your Priority Centered Life

Are you feeling tyrannized by your to do list? Are you looking for tips to increase your productivity for better time management? Are you wondering where to begin with a planner or a bullet journal? Do you wonder if it’s at all possible to achieve work-life balance? You’ve come to the right place! “Your Priority Centered Life” will feature useful information you can implement right away and guest interviews that will inspire you to move toward your goals. Host Dr. Alise Murray is a psychologist, a yoga teacher, and a life coach who has spent her career helping overwhelmed, busy adults center their lives around their priorities so they can experience greater fulfillment and achieve higher productivity without burnout. Want to know where to start? Take the free Prior 10 Life Assessment today! www.prior10.com/assessment (http://www.prior10.com/assessment) The information contained and documents referenced in the podcast “Your Priority Centered Life” are for entertainment, educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, professional medical or health treatment, diagnosis, or advice. We strongly encourage listeners to consult with medical providers or qualified mental health providers with issues and questions regarding any physical and/or mental health symptoms or concerns that they may have. Furthermore, the opinions and views expressed by podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates are not necessarily those of the podcast host. Dr. Alise Murray’s opinions and views are expressed in her individual capacity and are not to be construed as those of any of her podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates.

Publisher

Alise Murray, PhD

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Sept 2024

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

171 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   111: Meditation for Beginners Who Think They Can’t Meditate, with Mark Blacknell

   Think you can’t meditate because your mind won’t stop chattering? Former Marine and meditation teacher Mark Blacknell has a refreshingly simple answer: stare at the wall. In this episode of Your Priority Centered Life, Dr. Alise Murray talks with Mark, founder of Stare at the Wall, about how a stripped-down meditation practice can rebuild focus, help with emotional regulation, and make it easier to follow through. Mark shares his path from PTSD and depression after military service to getting help through the VA, finding stability with therapy and medication, and only then adding meditation as a daily practice. You’ll hear why Mark dropped the spiritual vocabulary and fancy techniques, what to do when the lawn crew starts up in the middle of your practice, and why “I can’t meditate” is usually a conclusion we reach before we’ve tried. Mark also offers a one-minute starting point that anyone can try today. Key takeaways Stability comes first. Mark needed treatment for PTSD and the right medication before meditation could help him. Meditation works alongside mental health treatment, not instead of it. Feeling better is not a reason to stop your meds. You don’t need an app, a retreat, or special vocabulary. A balanced position and a blank wall are enough. Irritation and distraction will still show up. Meditation gives you space to notice them and choose how to respond. Treat “I can’t” as a working hypothesis, not a fact. Run the experiment before deciding. Start small. One minute counts. As Mark says, you don’t need to change big time to change big time. About Mark Blacknell Mark Blacknell is a former US Marine, meditation teacher, and the founder of Stare at the Wall. After years of searching for a calmer, more intentional life, he developed a practical, no-frills approach to meditation that he now shares with groups in prisons, assisted living communities, and everyday life. He is the author of Just Stare at the Wall. Resources mentioned Stare at the Wall: https://www.stareatthewall.org Just Stare at the Wall by Mark Blacknell: https://a.co/d/0fq78toW Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki: https://a.co/d/03wK7qjt Jon Kabat-Zinn and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): https://www.jonkabat-zinn.com/ Veterans: VA Vet Centers offer free counseling for eligible veterans and families: https://www.vetcenter.va.gov/ If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US). Veterans can press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line. Questions this episode answers What if I can’t meditate because my mind won’t stop racing? A busy mind isn’t a sign you’re doing it wrong. Mark’s approach doesn’t ask you to empty your mind. You simply sit in a balanced position, face a wall, and notice whatever shows up, including the racing thoughts. What is the “stare at the wall” meditation? It’s a stripped-down practice rooted in Zen tradition. You sit or stand facing a blank wall in a balanced posture, with no app, music, or guided script, and pay attention to what you experience. How long should a beginner meditate? Mark suggests starting with one minute. When you’re ready for more, he offers a five-minute daily challenge for two weeks straight. His own practice grew to 30 to 40 minutes a day over years. Can meditation replace therapy or medication? No. Mark is clear that he needed therapy and medication first to reach stability. He warns against stopping prescribed medication just because you feel better. Can people with ADHD meditate? Yes. Having ADHD doesn’t rule out meditation. Dr. Alise and Mark discuss treating “I can’t” as a hypothesis to test rather than a fixed fact about yourself. Want to get a snapshot of your own life in just minutes? Take the free Prior 10 Life Assessment at www.prior10.com/assessment. The information contained and documents referenced in the podcast “Your Priority Centered Life” are for entertainment, educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, professional medical or health treatment, diagnosis, or advice. We strongly encourage listeners to consult with medical providers or qualified mental health providers with issues and questions regarding any physical and/or mental health symptoms or concerns that they may have. Furthermore, the opinions and views expressed by podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates are not necessarily those of the podcast host. Dr. Alise Murray’s opinions and views are expressed in her individual capacity and are not to be construed as those of any of her podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates.

2. 

   7 Oct 2026

   110: Building Systems That Protect Your Priorities, with Marlon Buchanan

   There's a moment in this conversation where guest Marlon Buchanan says something that Dr. Alise has believed for years: no matter how good your memory is, it was never built to hold everything modern life asks of it. You need systems. Marlon is a technologist, bestselling author, and IT leader with a computer science degree from MIT and advanced degrees in business and software engineering. He's the founder of Home Tech Hacker and the author of Life by Design, a book on using automation to reclaim time, reduce stress, and focus on what actually matters. His next book, Your Life Solved, on practical ways AI can help save time and reduce stress, is coming later this year. Marlon and Dr. Alise talk through where his own automation journey started (a wake-up call at 49, the same age his father had a near-fatal heart attack), how he decides what's worth automating and what isn't, and a handful of concrete systems anyone can borrow this week, from a two-reminder birthday system to a daily legal-pad list that has nothing to do with technology at all. In this episode: The health scare that led Marlon to rethink how he was living How to decide what to automate and what to leave alone Why more notifications rarely mean more peace, and a simple experiment to try A two-reminder system for never scrambling on birthdays again Using AI as a personal assistant for thinking, not a replacement for it Why Marlon still uses a plain legal pad every morning Automations for finances, family calendars, and parenting logistics What a well-designed life actually looks like, in Marlon's own words Resources mentioned: Home Tech Hacker (hometechnhacker.com), Marlon's website Life by Design: Automate to Master Time, Health, Money and Unlock Personal Success by Marlon Buchanan Your Life Solved: 42 Practical Ways AI Can Help You Save Time, Reduce Stress, and Get More Done (upcoming) Monarch Money, a paid app for consolidating bank and investment accounts into one budget view Routine Flow, referenced as a tool for moving through a morning routine without getting distracted Q&A Who is Marlon Buchanan? Marlon Buchanan is a technologist, bestselling author, and IT leader with a computer science degree from MIT. He's the founder of Home Tech Hacker and the author of Life by Design, a book about using automation to protect time, energy, and focus for what matters most. What is the book Life by Design about? It's about using automation, both simple systems and actual technology, to reduce the mental load of daily obligations so there's more focus left over for the things a person actually wants to spend their time and energy on. How can automation actually reduce overwhelm instead of adding to it? By targeting tasks that are frequent, low-stakes, or ones you don't feel strongly about doing a particular way. Automating those frees up mental energy for the things that do require your full attention and care, like relationships or creative work. What's a simple automation to start with this week? Consolidating your finances into one tool that pulls in transactions from every bank and investment account, so you can review everything in one place on a regular schedule instead of logging into multiple accounts or tracking things manually. How should you use AI without letting it take over your thinking? Use it as a personal assistant, not a replacement for judgment. AI is strong at tasks like finding a meeting time across several calendars or summarizing a backlog of email, but it isn't good at the higher-level thinking of deciding what actually matters to you on a given day. Why does a plain legal pad still work better than a lot of digital tools? Writing by hand helps you slow down and process information more deeply than typing does. A simple daily list of the top priorities, made first thing in the morning before anyone else needs your attention, can do more for follow-through than a more complex digital system. Want to get a snapshot of your own life in just minutes? Take the free Prior 10 Life Assessment at www.prior10.com/assessment. The information contained and documents referenced in the podcast “Your Priority Centered Life” are for entertainment, educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, professional medical or health treatment, diagnosis, or advice. We strongly encourage listeners to consult with medical providers or qualified mental health providers with issues and questions regarding any physical and/or mental health symptoms or concerns that they may have. Furthermore, the opinions and views expressed by podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates are not necessarily those of the podcast host. Dr. Alise Murray’s opinions and views are expressed in her individual capacity and are not to be construed as those of any of her podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates.

3. 

   30 Sept 2026

   109: Sleep Debt Is a Payday Loan. Here's the Interest You're Paying

   There's a piece of productivity advice Dr. Alise hears often: always finish your top priority tasks before you go to bed. In a steady, normal stretch of life, maybe that works. But in the middle of a transition, she thinks that advice can actually hurt you. This final episode in the Transitions series looks at the thread running underneath every kind of transition covered so far: sleep. Dr. Alise reframes a late bedtime or an early alarm as a payday loan on your energy, one that comes with high interest, and shares a personal story from graduate school (planning a long-distance wedding on top of a full plate) about what happens when you don't adjust anything and just try to power through. In this episode: Why "finish before bed" backfires during a transition The payday loan metaphor for borrowed sleep and its compounding interest A personal story about hitting a wall while planning a wedding long-distance A simple bedtime practice for quieting your brain without sacrificing sleep Why taking things off your plate requires an actual conversation, not silent absorption A wrap-up of the full Transitions series Next up: A short pause before new territory. Dr. Alise is joined by bestselling author Marlon Buchanan to talk about using systems to streamline tasks. Q&A Why shouldn't I sacrifice sleep to finish tasks during a busy season? Because during a transition you're already operating with less energy than usual, and borrowing sleep works like a payday loan with high interest. The next day you're not just tired, you skip the small things that make mornings go smoothly, which sets up another night of borrowing. What is sleep debt and why does it matter during a life transition? It's the accumulated cost of pushing your bedtime later or your alarm earlier to squeeze in extra demands. It compounds fast: reduced energy makes things take longer, which makes you more behind, which tempts you to borrow again the next night. How do I protect my sleep when everything feels urgent? Ask yourself directly whether you're willing to take out that "loan" and what it will cost you. If the answer is no, jot a few lines about where you left off instead of pushing through, and have an honest conversation with the people around you about taking something off your plate. Is "finish your top priority before bed" good advice? Not necessarily, particularly during a transition. You're already running on less energy, and your top priority task rarely has a predictable size in the middle of change. That advice can turn into a setup for exhaustion rather than a motivational push. Resources Sign up for the weekly Sunday (https://sunday-priority-check.subscribepage.io/) Res (https://www.hey.com/)et Newsletter (https://sunday-priority-check.subscribepage.io/) Want to get a snapshot of your own life in just minutes? Take the free Prior 10 Life Assessment at www.prior10.com/assessment. The information contained and documents referenced in the podcast “Your Priority Centered Life” are for entertainment, educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, professional medical or health treatment, diagnosis, or advice. We strongly encourage listeners to consult with medical providers or qualified mental health providers with issues and questions regarding any physical and/or mental health symptoms or concerns that they may have. Furthermore, the opinions and views expressed by podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates are not necessarily those of the podcast host. Dr. Alise Murray’s opinions and views are expressed in her individual capacity and are not to be construed as those of any of her podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

2

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 34 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

43

Social presence

0

YouTube

63

Engagement

0

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