Prioritization is difficult in academia because everything carries an extra layer of pomp, circumstance and bureaucracy. Attempts to simplify and humanize prioritization generally make the situation worse because they cannot be applied uniformly. This is why so much actual progress in academic situations is accomplished by walking up to someone unannounced and asking them for a decision or approval face to face - it knocks them out of their academic register and forces them into a managerial fight-or-flight situation. We would throw drafts, proposals, papers, whatever at any number of academic clients and would get total dialtones until someone would get in the car, drive over (sometimes dozens of miles), and knock on the door. Obviously this approach comes with an unacceptable risk in the COVID universe which, I would imagine, makes the situation even more infuriating.