Goal prioritization is how Unfair decides which outcomes to optimize first when multiple goals compete for the same stack.
Why it matters
You may want better sleep, higher work focus, and less anxiety at the same time. Goal prioritization keeps recommendations from trying to solve all three at once with one unsafe or unstable combo.
Priority model used in practice
Unfair applies a fixed hierarchy when two recommendations offer similar evidence:
- Safety first
- Consistency and adherence feasibility
- Explicit objective goal signal
- Optimization opportunities after the above are stable
If a goal change violates a higher layer, the lower layers are deferred even if the expected benefit looks larger.
Competing goals examples
- Sleep + focus: a stimulating dose pair is usually deprioritized until wake-time goals are met.
- Anxiety + performance: lower-dose, steadier scheduling usually outranks high-intensity stacking until signal stability improves.
- Recovery + body composition: acute fatigue reduction may be favored before aggressive metabolic timing changes.
What user overrides do
An override tells Unfair your current preference, but it does not erase safety and consistency gates.
Expect three behaviors:
- A stricter override can pull a lower-priority objective up for the next cycle.
- A repeated override without better outcomes can trigger rebalancing prompts.
- Safety flags can still suppress the override if urgency signals rise.
Practical action step
When goals conflict, choose one lead goal for the next 5–7 days, then log whether outcomes improved before retesting a second objective.
This reduces self-attribution noise and lowers recommendation churn.
Uncertainty and limits
- Evidence is limited on exact tradeoff weighting by population, so similar users can still receive different orderings over time.
- Evidence is limited on how quickly urgency shifts (travel, medication change, acute stress) should re-rank a goal stack.
Cross-site references
How this appears in Unfair
You see goal prioritization in rationale text, rationale confidence language, and why a recommendation moves up or down after one week versus one cycle.
If a goal is repeatedly skipped by ranking, the app suggests updating your active goal weighting or revisiting safety constraints.
Clinical safety note
If conflicting goals produce repeated insomnia, palpitations, panic symptoms, or severe GI disturbance, pause optimization and request clinician input before continuing.