How to prioritize at work when everything feels important

Do you know that feeling when your head is full of plans, ideas and things you really must get done?

Everything feels important. Everything seems urgent. And while you are trying to determine where to start, your inbox is filling up with even more requests.

The worst thing you can do at that moment is start answering emails.

Yes, you hear me.

Your inbox is essentially a to-do list created by other people. And there is a leadership lesson in that too: if you don’t decide where your time goes, the loudest request will decide for you.

So, how do you prioritize at work when everything feels important?

I use a practical five-step process that takes approximately two hours. After those 120 minutes, you will have more clarity, a realistic overview of your priorities and a first action completed.

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Get everything out of your head

Time needed: 25 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break

Start with a 15-minute braindump.

Take a large sheet of paper (I love using A3) and write down everything that is currently taking up space in your head. Projects, ideas, promises, deadlines, conversations you need to have and tasks you keep postponing.

Don’t organize or judge anything yet. The goal is simply to get it all out.

Then spend ten minutes grouping everything into themes. You can use a simple mind map to identify which ideas and tasks belong together.

After 25 minutes, you can finally see what has been circling around in your head. And that alone often creates an enormous sense of relief.

Step 2: Decide what truly matters

Time needed: 15 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break

Now it is time to prioritize.

For me, this works best with Post-its. Write each theme from your braindump on a separate note and estimate how much time it will require.

Then put the themes in order.

What is truly important comes first. What can wait, moves to a later moment. And some things may not deserve your time at all.

This is where you have to dare to choose.

Of course, you would love to complete everything within the next two weeks. But you probably can’t. Strategic prioritization means accepting that choosing one priority also means postponing or letting go of something else.

Step 3: Connect your priorities to your strategy

Time needed: 40 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break

This is where planning becomes leadership.

Your calendar should reflect your strategy. If everything is a priority, your strategy is probably still a nice PowerPoint rather than something that guides your daily decisions.

I use a Strategy Map to visually connect my work to my strategic themes. I choose a realistic planning period, write down my main strategic pillars and place my Post-its underneath them.

For every project or task, I ask myself two questions:

1. Does this work genuinely contribute to one of my strategic priorities?
2. If it does, when am I going to act on it?

We all have work on our to-do lists without ever asking whether it should be there.

This step helps you distinguish between work that feels productive and work that actually moves your strategy forward.

And don’t worry about making your Strategy Map look perfect. Start with a first shitty draft. Clarity is more important than design.

Step 4: Let your ambition meet your calendar

Time needed: 10 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break

Now comes the slightly painful part.

Look at everything you have planned and compare it with the actual time available in your calendar.

Can you realistically do all of it?

Take your existing meetings, deadlines, speaking engagements, client commitments and personal responsibilities into account. You may discover that you have scheduled far too much work in one particular week or month.

Move projects if necessary. Reduce the scope. Delegate tasks. Or consciously decide that something is not going to happen.

Be brutally honest. A plan that doesn’t fit into your calendar is still a bad plan.

Leadership is not about creating the most ambitious plan. It is about making choices you can actually follow through on.

Step 5: Take one small action

Time needed: 10 minutes

You now have an overview of your priorities and how they connect to your strategy.

Before you finish, choose one Post-it and take one small action.

Send the email. Schedule the meeting. Make the call. Create the document. Block the necessary time in your calendar.

Whatever it is, move something forward.

Having clarity and focus feels great. Turning that clarity into action feels even better.

Your priorities need space in your calendar

Congratulations. In approximately two hours, you have created clarity and focus.

You have made your priorities visible, connected them to your strategy and checked whether your plans are realistic.

Now go outside for a walk. Take the dog if you have one, or reward yourself with a brilliant cappuccino.

Keep your Strategy Map nearby and use it as your guide for the coming weeks or months. From there, you can start translating your priorities into your calendar.

Because knowing what your priorities are is one thing. Making sure they genuinely receive your time and attention is another.

That is where strategic planning becomes leadership.

Until next time, keep spicing up your Customer Experience leadership.

*****

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress. 

She’s a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person voor CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations. 

With her over 20 years corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. Subscribe to her weekly CX Newsletter to stay tuned.