Let’s say that you work for a typical organization that has lots of important things going on. If you were to create a list of things you could work on (just off the top of your head) that list would presumably be at least 10 items long – some more involved than others.
10 tasks spread your attention too thin to get any of them done effectively. But narrowing the list to the 2 real priorities means that 8 tasks are implicitly less important to you (or someone). In order to be really productive some people need to know that they are less important. This is hard for some to actually say/imply.
But productivity is important. We’re all hired in our jobs because we are here to get things done timely and efficiently (unless you’re a lawyer I suppose?).