Highlight Priorities: Focused Strategies for Better Task Management

Updated On: August 24, 2025 by     Aaron Connolly  

Understanding the Importance of Highlighting Priorities

When you highlight your priorities the right way, you gain sharper focus and start seeing more meaningful results—whether that’s in gaming or just regular life. Clear prioritisation lets you cut through distractions and actually make space for what matters most.

Benefits of Clear Prioritisation

Clear prioritisation really changes how you go after your goals. Once you know what’s most important, you can pour your energy into things that actually move the needle.

Improved Focus and Productivity

Setting priorities helps you zero in on tasks that actually matter. Instead of bouncing around between a dozen things, you can carve out time for your top work.

You’ll notice you finish tasks quicker and usually with better results. Less time wasted on context switching, more time making real progress.

Better Decision Making

When your priorities are set, picking what to do next feels less overwhelming. You can tell right away if something new is worth your attention or just another distraction.

Key benefits include:

• Faster response to the requests that count
• Less time lost on stuff that doesn’t matter
• It’s easier to say no to things that don’t fit
• You’ll probably feel less stressed by choices

Enhanced Time Management

Prioritisation lets you use your time more intentionally. You can plan your most important tasks when your energy’s highest.

You’ll avoid sinking hours into things that don’t get you closer to your goals. Each day gets a bit more purposeful.

Common Obstacles to Prioritising Tasks

Even when we know prioritisation is important, a few things can still get in the way. If you can spot these obstacles, you can actually do something about them.

Emotional Decision Making

We often pick tasks based on what feels good in the moment, not what’s important. It’s easy to choose the quick win over the tough, high-value work.

Like, answering emails right away feels productive, but it can pull you away from bigger, more impactful projects.

Everything Feels Urgent

When you’ve got a lot coming at you, it’s tempting to treat every task as equally important. But that just means you end up reacting to the loudest thing, not the most valuable one.

Common prioritisation mistakes:

• Spending time on “could-do” instead of “must-do” items
• Tackling requests in the order they show up
• Dodging tough calls about what to drop
• Letting other people’s urgency run your day

Lack of Clear Goals

If your long-term goals aren’t clear, how can you know what deserves your attention? You can stay busy all day and not actually get anywhere.

This shows up at work and at home. Concrete goals let you judge if your daily actions fit the bigger picture.

The Role of Focus in Personal and Professional Success

Focus acts like a bridge between knowing your priorities and actually getting stuff done. If you keep your focus on what matters, you’ll see real progress.

Professional Benefits

At work, focused prioritisation leads to better outcomes and helps you move up. You finish the important stuff—the kind your boss or your clients actually notice.

Teams that get this right use their resources better. They don’t spread themselves thin chasing every idea.

Personal Growth Advantages

Clear priorities help you balance life outside of work too. You can make time for friends, health, or hobbies based on what’s important to you.

Focus helps you:

• Finish projects that matter
• Build stronger relationships
• Learn new things on purpose
• Keep work-life balance

Long-term Impact

If you keep focusing on your top priorities, those small daily steps add up over time. You start making steady progress, not just spinning your wheels.

Prioritisation, once it’s a habit, gives you an edge. While others get sidetracked, you stick to what really counts.

Key Steps to Highlight Priorities Effectively

Learning to highlight priorities isn’t magic—it’s a process. You need to figure out what matters most, then make sure your actions line up with your goals.

It starts with understanding your current commitments and making sure your daily tasks actually match what you want.

Identifying What Truly Matters

First, separate what’s important from what just feels urgent. Most of us get caught up putting out fires instead of working on things that move us forward.

List out everything you need to do—work projects, personal goals, daily chores. Don’t worry about order yet; just get it all out.

Ask yourself for each item:

• Does this help me reach my long-term goals?
• What happens if I skip this entirely?
• Am I doing this for me, or just because someone else expects it?

Patterns will start to show. The tasks that support your big goals and have real consequences if ignored? Those are your true priorities.

Most people spend too much time on things that feel productive but don’t actually matter. Those are the first things to cut or hand off.

Assessing Current Workload and Time Commitments

You can’t prioritise well if you don’t know where your time goes. Track what you do for a week—seriously, just jot it down.

Use a simple log or an app. Write down everything: meetings, work, scrolling social media, even breaks.

Watch out for these common time drains:

• Meetings you don’t need
• Mindless social media time
• Responding instantly to every email
• Tasks you could hand off

Add up the hours for each type of activity. You might be shocked at how much time goes to low-value stuff.

Once you see your patterns, pick out things that eat up time but add little value. That’s where you can claw back hours for your real priorities.

Be honest about your limits. If you’re already maxed out, you can’t just add more priorities—you’ll need to let something go first.

Aligning Your Goals with Your Priorities

Your daily actions should match your big goals. If they don’t, something’s off.

Write down your top three long-term goals. Maybe it’s career growth, better health, or a personal project. Get specific about what “success” means.

Now, compare that list to how you actually spend your time. If you say career matters but never work on new skills, your priorities need a realignment.

Try a simple priority matrix:

Priority Level	Time Allocation	Examples
High	60% of discretionary time	Core projects, key relationships
Medium	30% of discretionary time	Skill-building, planning
Low	10% of discretionary time	Admin, optional stuff

Schedule the high-priority work first. Block time in your calendar and treat it like a real appointment.

Check your priorities every week. Stuff changes, and what was urgent last month might not matter now.

Task Management and Planning Techniques

Good task management turns a messy to-do list into a plan you can actually follow. If you build your system around priorities and set clear goals, you’ll keep moving forward.

Building a Priority-Driven To-Do List

Start by dumping every task onto paper or into your favourite app. It clears your head and gives you a full view of what’s on your plate.

Then, sort tasks using a framework. The Eisenhower Matrix works well: urgent and important (do now), important but not urgent (schedule), urgent but not important (delegate), and neither (ditch it).

Or try the 1-3-9 method:

• 1 high-priority task
• 3 medium-priority tasks
• 9 low-priority tasks

This keeps you from getting overwhelmed and helps you chip away at the big stuff. Tools like Asana or Trello make it easy to visualise with colour-coding and deadlines.

Review your list regularly. Life changes fast, so your priorities will too.

Setting Actionable and Measurable Goals

Vague goals like “do better” don’t help much. Make them specific, measurable, and give yourself a deadline.

The SMART framework:

• Specific: What exactly do you want?
• Measurable: How will you track it?
• Achievable: Is it realistic?
• Relevant: Does it fit your bigger goals?
• Time-bound: When’s it due?

Break big goals into smaller steps. “Launch website” becomes “research competitors,” “design wireframes,” “write content,” and so on.

Use metrics and milestones to track how you’re doing. It’s motivating to see progress and helps you spot problems early.

Maintaining Accountability and Consistency

Accountability keeps you on track. Set up regular check-ins—with yourself or others—to review progress and spot roadblocks.

Try weekly planning sessions:

• Look back at what you finished
• Reassess your priorities
• Plan the next steps
• Flag any issues early

Apps and planners can send reminders and track your progress. But you’ve got to actually use them for any of it to work.

Start small. Build the habit with daily reviews before adding more complex planning. Consistency matters more than perfection.

Time blocking helps too. Schedule your most important work and treat that time as non-negotiable.

Utilising Colour Coding to Highlight Priorities

Colour coding makes it way easier to see what’s urgent at a glance. You’ll set up a system where each priority gets its own colour, create a legend everyone can follow, and keep things consistent across all your tools.

Choosing a Colour Coding System for Prioritisation

The best colour coding systems use just a handful of colours—three to five, tops. More than that, and it just gets confusing.

Red is the classic choice for urgent, high-priority tasks. It grabs your attention and signals “do this now.”

Yellow or orange works for medium-priority stuff that’s coming up soon. It stands out, but not as much as red.

Green tells you the task is low-priority or already done. It’s calming, kind of a “good to go” signal.

Some teams add blue for planning or future work, and grey for things on hold.

Honestly, starting with three colours—red, yellow, green—keeps it simple. You can always add more later if you need to.

Test your colours with your team. What screams “urgent” to you might not mean the same to someone else.

Creating and Using a Colour Legend

Your colour legend should be simple and easy for everyone to find.

Write out what each colour means and put that guide somewhere visible.

Sample colour legend:

• Red: Due today or overdue
• Yellow: Due this week
• Green: Due next week or later
• Blue: Planning or research
• Grey: Waiting on others

Stick your legend at the top of project boards, in shared docs, or as labels in your apps. Update it right away if you change anything.

Make sure new team members check the legend early on. It’s easy to forget otherwise.

Printing out a physical copy for your desk can help. Digital legends sometimes get buried in menus when you need them most.

Best Practices for Consistency in Colour Coding

Consistency is key. Use the same red for urgent tasks everywhere—your planner, calendar, or whatever project tool you use.

Set up templates with the right colours built in. This stops people from picking random colours that mess up your system.

Go over colour assignments during team meetings each week. Priorities change, so your colours might need to as well.

A few consistency tips:

• Same colours in every tool
• Update colours as priorities shift
• Leave clear notes when handing off tasks
• Use the same colour for the same type of task

Try not to change colour meanings too often. People need time to get used to the system.

Document your colour choices in team guides and project files. It makes onboarding easier and keeps things clear during crunch time.

Practical Tools for Highlighting Priorities

The right tools can completely change how you highlight and track your top tasks. Digital platforms bring colour coding and reminders, while physical planners let you organise with your own hands.

Digital Task Management Tools

Digital task management platforms really shine when it comes to highlighting priorities. You can spot what matters most in seconds.

Most apps let you use colour coding to show priority. Maybe you pick red for urgent, orange for important, and green for the routine stuff. This system follows you on every device.

ClickUp and Wrike, for example, let you add custom fields for priorities. You can label tasks as “Critical,” “High,” “Medium,” or “Low,” and those labels pop right out in your lists.

Flagging systems are everywhere now. You can star or flag the big stuff, making sure it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Some apps even push flagged tasks up to the top for you.

Dashboards in advanced tools show your highest-priority tasks in their own sections. You see what needs your attention now, without distractions from less important jobs.

Physical Planners and Stationery

Physical planners give you instant visual feedback. Writing things down and marking them up makes the important stuff stick in your mind.

Colour coding also works wonders here. Grab a set of pens or highlighters in different colours. Many folks use yellow for urgent and orange for important-but-not-urgent.

Bullet journals use symbols like stars, exclamation points, and arrows to show priority. These quick marks turn a plain list into a priority map.

Stickers and washi tape add another layer. Maybe you put red dots next to urgent things or use numbers to rank your list. This trick makes weekly spreads much easier to scan.

Physical tools have a big advantage: they’re always visible. Unlike digital notifications that vanish, a highlighted task in your planner stares at you every time you open it.

Using Automation and Reminders

Automation keeps your priority system running without you thinking about it. Smart reminders and rules help you stay focused.

Set up automated reminders for each priority level. High-priority stuff gets daily nudges, while medium-priority might only ping you once a week. This way, nothing important slips away.

Many apps let you create rules. Overdue high-priority tasks can automatically jump to the top, or you can get alerts when deadlines are close.

Calendar integration links your task management with your daily plan. Priority tasks can block off time in your calendar, making sure you actually work on them.

Email rules help too. You can filter messages with priority keywords or from key clients so urgent emails don’t get buried.

Some automation tools even learn from your habits. They’ll suggest priority changes based on your deadlines, workload, and what you finish most often.

Highlighting Priorities in Agile Workflows

Agile teams deal with tight deadlines and shifting needs, so they need clear ways to show which tasks matter most. We rely on visual tools and structured methods to keep priorities obvious during backlog planning, sprint work, and team reviews.

Agile Backlog Prioritisation

The product backlog acts as our main priority hub. We put user stories and tasks in order by value and urgency. That way, everyone knows what comes first.

Most teams stick with a high, medium, low system. Some go with numbers or colours instead. The important thing is to pick a method and actually use it.

We go over our backlog every week. Priorities change fast—what mattered last month might not matter now.

Quick win: Add labels or tags in your project tool so priorities show up right away.

A common trap? Marking everything “high priority.” If all tasks are urgent, none of them really are. Try to keep high-priority items to no more than 20% of your backlog.

The product owner leads the way on priorities. Still, everyone on the team should know why things are ranked the way they are.

Integrating Highlighted Priorities into Sprints

Sprint planning meetings pull our focus onto the big stuff. We grab the highest-value items from the backlog first. That way, we handle important work before the rest.

Visual boards help a ton during sprints. Different colours or symbols show task importance—maybe red flags for urgent fixes, green stars for quick wins.

Lots of teams set sprint goals that mirror their top priorities. For example: “Fix login bugs and improve checkout.” That keeps everyone moving in the same direction.

Warning: Don’t cram your sprint with only high-priority work. Mix in smaller, less urgent tasks to avoid burnout and keep things flowing.

During daily standups, call out any priority shifts. If something urgent pops up, talk about how it affects your sprint. Everyone needs to know when the plan changes.

Task boards make priorities clear. Columns like “Critical,” “Important,” and “Nice to Have” help everyone see what matters most.

Reviewing Priorities in Retrospectives

Retrospectives let us see if our priority system actually worked. We check what finished and what didn’t. That tells us if we need to tweak our approach.

Ask questions like: Did we focus on the right stuff? Was everyone clear on priorities? What made us change direction during the sprint?

We track these patterns over time. If high-priority tasks keep getting bumped, maybe we’re overestimating or marking too many things as urgent.

Quick win: Make a simple chart showing done vs not-done by priority level. Visual data makes problems obvious.

Team feedback is gold. Developers, testers, designers—they all see priority problems from different angles. Their insights help us get better.

Action items from retrospectives should aim to improve how we highlight priorities. Maybe next sprint, we use clearer labels or limit “high priority” to five items.

Regular reviews keep our system sharp. What works for one team might flop for another, so we tweak things as we go.

Balancing Competing Priorities for Maximum Productivity

Managing multiple priorities means sorting tasks by importance and protecting your time and energy. The trick is to use proven methods to evaluate what matters and know your limits before you burn out.

Techniques for Managing Multiple Priorities

Build a priority ranking system you can stick to. Try a simple four-level scale: urgent (needs attention now), high (finish soon), normal (can wait, but schedule it), and low (least urgent).

Write down everything you need to do. Then, look at each task and ask: is it high impact or high effort?

Start with high-impact, low-effort tasks. These give you fast wins and momentum. Next, tackle high-impact, high-effort ones—they’re important but need more time.

Visual tools help you see your workload. A basic matrix with “impact” and “effort” axes shows you where to focus first.

Time blocking protects your best hours for top-priority work. Set aside blocks for different tasks instead of bouncing around all day.

Review your priorities once a week, not every day. Daily changes create chaos. Weekly reviews help you adapt without losing your footing.

Tell your team right away if priorities shift. Everyone needs to know what moved up or down and why.

Avoiding Overcommitment and Burnout

Set limits on how many high-priority jobs you take. Most people can only juggle two or three urgent projects before quality drops.

Say “not now” instead of “no” when new requests come in. This keeps things positive while you protect your time.

Leave buffer time in your schedule. Only plan for 80% of your time. Use the rest for surprises or tasks that run long.

Watch your energy, not just your clock. Some work drains you more. Do tough stuff when you’re naturally alert.

Delegate or drop tasks that don’t fit your main goals. Ask, “What happens if I skip this?” The answer often tells you if it’s really needed.

Try the “two-week rule” for new priorities. If someone asks you to take on something new, tell them you’ll review it in two weeks. This stops you from overloading yourself on impulse.

Look for warning signs of overcommitment: working late, missing deadlines, feeling stressed, or avoiding certain jobs. If you spot these, it’s time to cut back.

Highlighting Priorities for Teams and Collaboration

Teams need clear ways to show what matters most. Visual highlighting systems help everyone spot urgent tasks and keep team discussions focused on what truly drives results.

Facilitating Team Communication on Priorities

Regular priority talks keep teams on track and deadlines in check. Start each week with a quick priority review—everyone shares their top three tasks.

Try these discussion ideas:

• Hold a 15-minute check-in every Monday
• Ask why each task matters
• Spot tasks that depend on others finishing first
• Talk about which priorities might change during the week

Agile teams do daily standups to highlight shifting priorities. Team leads should ask, “What’s blocking your top task?” instead of just “How’s it going?”

Visual priority boards help in meetings. Red for urgent, amber for important, green for lower priority. Everyone sees the big picture fast.

Communication works best when priorities link to clear goals. Explain how each highlighted task supports team objectives or client needs.

Visibility of Priorities in Collaborative Tools

Modern task tools make it easy to highlight priorities with colours and labels. Project boards can turn overdue tasks red and high-priority ones orange.

Top highlighting features:

• Colour coding (high, medium, low)
• Status highlighting for urgent, in progress, done
• Due date alerts that change colour as deadlines near
• Full-row highlighting to make tasks pop

Most platforms let you set your own rules. Automatic colour changes for overdue or re-prioritised tasks save time and cut errors.

Set up your team’s system like this:

Priority Level	Colour	When to Use
Urgent	Red	Due today or overdue
High	Orange	Due this week
Medium	Yellow	Due next week
Low	Green	No fixed deadline

Productivity jumps when everyone uses the same system. Train your team on what each colour means and how to update priorities.

Tracking Progress on Highlighted Priorities

Once you highlight your top priorities, regular tracking keeps you on course. Check completion rates and stay flexible—sometimes you need to adjust based on what’s really moving forward.

Monitoring Completion and Progress

Set up simple tracking systems that won’t waste your time. Just use your planner or to-do list instead of chasing after fancy new apps.

Every week, check in on each priority you’ve highlighted. Mark how much you’ve finished. If you’re working on “Launch new tournament series,” track milestones like “sponsorship secured (25%), venue booked (50%), marketing campaign live (75%).”

Use visual progress indicators you can spot instantly. Digital planners usually have progress bars. On paper, draw boxes and fill them in as you go.

Track your time against your results. If you spend 10 hours a week on content but only finish two pieces, it’s a sign something needs to change.

Tracking Method	Best For	Time Required
Daily checkboxes	Simple tasks	2 minutes
Weekly percentages	Complex projects	5-10 minutes
Monthly reviews	Long-term goals	30 minutes

Just a heads-up: Don’t obsess over tracking every little thing. Stick to your main priorities.

Adapting Priorities Based on Outcomes

Review your progress data once a month and look for trends. If a priority keeps lagging, stop and ask yourself why.

Sometimes outside events shake up your priorities. A sudden tournament opportunity might push “team recruitment” above “content strategy.” That’s just how it goes.

If a priority isn’t working out, drop it or hand it off. When social media growth stalls despite your best efforts, maybe it shouldn’t be a main focus.

Celebrate when you finish something early or get better results than expected. These wins can open up new paths you hadn’t considered.

Check your to-do list history to see which tasks you breeze through. Try to schedule similar high-priority work when you’re at your best.

Set calendar reminders for monthly reviews. Take 15 minutes to ask, “Is this still our top focus?” for each highlighted item.

Strategic Priorities: Aligning Projects with Organisational Goals

Successful esports organisations know every project should support their core goals, whether that’s developing champion players or building a strong community. The best results come when teams stick to 3-5 key priorities and make sure every initiative ties back to those big objectives.

Examples of Strategic Prioritisation

You’ll see different organisations handle priorities in their own way. Team Liquid focuses on player development, content creation, and fan engagement as their main three.

Most pro teams usually put:

• Player performance first, with coaching and training at the core
• Brand building through content and sponsorships
• Revenue generation from merch, partnerships, and tournaments

Tournament organisers like ESL zero in on production quality, growing their audience, and keeping sponsors happy. They pour resources into events that bring the best viewer numbers and engagement.

Try mapping your current projects to your top three organisational goals. If a project doesn’t clearly support one, maybe it’s time to let it go.

Smaller organisations often do better by picking one main focus. Lots of amateur teams just aim to improve competitively, instead of spreading themselves too thin.

Ensuring Alignment and Long-Term Focus

Quarterly alignment reviews help keep projects in sync with organisational goals. Check in every few months to see if your current efforts still match your priorities.

It’s easy to start projects that seem fun but don’t really help your main objectives. That just wastes time and drains your energy.

Leadership needs to communicate clearly so everyone knows how their work fits into the bigger picture. Each team member should see how their efforts help the organisation succeed.

Alignment Method	Frequency	Purpose
Strategic reviews	Quarterly	Assess priority relevance
Project audits	Monthly	Check resource allocation
Team meetings	Weekly	Maintain focus clarity

Track your progress with metrics that actually connect to your priorities. If player development is a big goal, measure things like rankings, tournament results, and skill growth—not just general activity.

Personalising Your System for Highlighting Priorities

The best system for highlighting priorities is the one that fits how you and your team actually work. You can customise colour schemes, focus methods, and planner setups to suit your habits—no need to copy someone else’s style.

Customising Methods to Suit Your Needs

Start with the tools you already use. Most digital planners and project management apps come with basic colour coding you can tweak.

Pick colours that make sense to you. Maybe red screams urgent, or you like orange for high priority. The important thing is to stay consistent across your tools.

For paper planners, highlighters do the trick. One colour for deadlines, another for top priorities, and a third for tasks waiting on others.

Think about your work environment when picking colours. If you work in dim lighting, go for bright yellows or oranges instead of softer blues or greens. Team systems need colours that everyone can see, even if someone’s colourblind.

Try out your system on a handful of tasks first. See if you’re actually noticing the highlights and making quicker decisions. If a colour blends in or just doesn’t catch your eye, switch it up right away.

Adapting Approaches for Ongoing Improvement

Priority systems need regular tweaks to stay useful. What works when things are slow might fall apart when projects pile up.

Review your highlighting system every month. Ask yourself which colours you skip over and which ones help you focus. Cut out or swap anything that’s not earning its keep.

Watch for patterns in your work. If everything ends up marked “urgent,” your categories might be too broad. Try adding time-based highlights like “due this week” along with importance markers.

Change things up for different seasons or project types. Campaigns might call for different colours than maintenance work. Keep your main colours steady, but add temporary ones when you need to.

If you use shared tools, ask your teammates what helps them focus. Their feedback can show you gaps you hadn’t noticed.

Write down your current system somewhere easy to find. When you make changes, jot down why and whether it actually helped after a few weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Highlight tone priority brings up a lot of questions—when should you use it, and how does it affect your photos? Here are some answers to the most common technical and practical questions to help you get better results.

What’s the best way to use highlight tone priority when photographing in bright conditions?

Turn on highlight tone priority before shooting in harsh sunlight or high-contrast scenes. This works best if your subject stands against a bright sky or snow.

Set your camera to a lower ISO when you use this feature. Highlight tone priority usually kicks in at ISO 200 instead of 100.

Try spot metering for more accurate exposures. This helps your camera decide how to protect highlights while keeping shadow details.

Can you explain the difference between highlight tone priority and auto lighting optimiser features?

Highlight tone priority keeps highlights from turning pure white when you take the shot. It tweaks the sensor’s response so bright areas hold onto detail.

Auto lighting optimiser steps in after the photo’s taken. It brightens shadows and tweaks contrast during processing inside the camera.

Most Canon cameras let you use both at once. Highlight tone priority guards the highlights, while auto lighting optimiser lifts the dark spots.

How can one disable highlight tone priority on a Canon camera?

Go to your camera’s Custom Functions menu. Find “Highlight tone priority” or “D+” (depends on your model).

Change the setting from “Enable” to “Disable.” Hit Set to confirm.

If the feature’s on, you’ll usually see a “D+” symbol in your viewfinder. That disappears once you turn it off.

After disabling, check your ISO. You’ll get ISO 100 back as your minimum.

In what scenarios should the highlight tone priority feature be turned on?

Use highlight tone priority when you’re shooting weddings or events with lots of bright lights. It helps keep detail in white dresses and decor.

It’s useful for outdoor portraits at noon. You’ll avoid blown-out skin tones and keep colours looking natural.

Turn it on for landscapes with bright skies. Mountain and beach shots benefit from better highlight control.

Sports photography in bright stadiums? Highlight tone priority helps you keep detail in white uniforms and bright backgrounds.

Could you provide guidance on adjusting highlight tone levels in post-processing software?

In Lightroom or Camera Raw, use the highlights slider to pull back blown-out areas. Move it left to darken the brightest spots.

Be careful with the whites slider—it affects the very brightest points more than the highlights slider does.

Try using the tone curve for finer control. A gentle S-curve can lower highlights while lifting shadows.

Use masking tools to target just the highlights you want to fix. That gives you more control than making changes to the whole image.

What impact does enabling highlight tone priority have on image noise and detail?

When you turn on highlight tone priority, you’ll probably notice a bit more noise creeping into the shadow areas. That happens because the camera uses a higher minimum ISO setting.

But on the bright side, highlights hang onto a lot more detail. You might spot extra texture in clouds, snow, or even bright shirts—it’s kind of impressive.

You’ll also get about one extra stop of dynamic range. Basically, the camera does a better job handling the extremes between the darkest and brightest parts.

If you brighten shadows later while editing, they can look a bit noisier. So, it’s worth thinking about that before you decide to leave the feature on.