Y’all remember the Eisenhower matrix?
It’s the classic four-quadrant tool that helps you sort tasks by whether they’re urgent, important, both, or neither.
And when the categories are clear, it’s genuinely useful.
Urgent and important? Do it.
Important but not urgent? Schedule it.
Urgent but not important? Delegate it.
Not urgent and not important? Delete it.
I've used it for years and helped my clients apply it in their own life and work.
It works great...until it doesn't.
I mean, what happens when you’re in a season where E'RYTHANG looks like it belongs in the “urgent and important” quadrant?
That’s the part most prioritization advice skips.
And it’s the part a lot of leaders are living inside right now.
I talked about this on LinkedIn the other day: Urgency is not the same as priority. That post came from watching the way current leadership conversations are being framed at the highest levels.
Reuters reported that AI executives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Mistral are expected at the G7 summit as leaders discuss AI and online safety. Another Reuters report described the G7 agenda as dominated by Iran, Ukraine, global imbalances, critical minerals, and crisis management, with no major breakthrough decisions expected. Reuters NEXT Europe is also being framed around defense, energy, AI, industrial renewal, regulation, and business leadership under pressure. [1][2][3]
That means right now, leaders are trying to navigate AI, regulation, market pressure, geopolitical instability, talent issues, public trust, economic uncertainty, energy concerns, and strategic transformation… all at the same time.
That’s a lot!
And it’s not just happening on the world stage.
It’s happening inside organizations, leadership teams, founder-led businesses, and boardrooms everywhere.
The issues may be smaller in scale, but the pattern is the same:
Everything's trying to compete in the "Urgent & important" quadrant of the good ol' Eisenhower matrix.
And everything can’t be first.
You can't have a ten-way tie for first place.
Everything can be important.
Everything can deserve attention.
Everything can carry consequences.
But everything cannot be the number one priority.
The moment leaders start treating every issue as Priority One, priorities stop being priorities. They become a list of things people feel guilty about not doing fast enough.
Even in organizations with multiple departments, each area can only have one true priority at a given moment.
Sales may have a top priority that's different than Operations. And that may be different from HR or Finance.
But within each function, there is still a decision being made about what comes first.
It's a statement of sequence.
It's the answer to the question:
"What has to happen before the next thing can happen?"
That's why prioritization gets so uncomfortable.
Choosing a priority doesn't mean the other issues stop mattering.
It means you're deciding what gets protected first, funded first, staffed first, discussed first, and solved first.
And every time you make that choice, you're implicitly deciding what will wait.
That's the part many leaders try to avoid.
But avoiding the choice doesn't eliminate the tradeoff; it just hides it.
You'll eventually feel those consequences anyway.
So when everything looks urgent and important, the challenge isn't figuring out matters most (because it's ALL important!)
The challenge is deciding which one truly comes first.
Because everything can't be first.
When everything feels urgent, the natural impulse is to move toward the loudest problem:
And sometimes, yeah, the loudest problem needs immediate attention.
But not always.
Sometimes the loudest problem is just where the pressure valve is whistling.
The real issue may more likely be a decision nobody wants to make, a tradeoff nobody wants to own, or an initiative that you need to stop pretending is still on the table.
That’s decision friction.
What has to be decided first so the rest of the work can move?
That question changes the room.
Because now you’re looking for the decision underneath the noise.
This is where leaders can get themselves into trouble before things become a full-blown crisis.
Pre-crisis rarely looks dramatic.
It doesn’t always look like collapse.
It often looks responsible.
But when everything stays on the table, nothing has really been decided.
A packed agenda, like the one planned for the G7, can tell you what matters.
But a clear decision tells you what moves.
That’s a very different thing.
When leaders don’t name the real decision, the organization starts paying for it in ways that don't look like a big deal at first, but they compound over time:
And everyone is tired because they’re working hard, but they’re still carrying too many unresolved decisions.
That indecision is expensive.
It costs time, money, market position, talent, and credibility.
When I talk about decision clarity, I’m not talking about having perfect certainty.
We live in reality, not a dream world. Things move too fast for that (sorry Linears!).
High-stakes decisions rarely come with perfect certainty.
Decision clarity is about knowing what decision you’re actually making, why it matters now, what tradeoff comes with it, and what order the work needs to happen in so the system can move without breaking.
That last part matters.
Order of operations is not just a math thing (Thank God! My degree's in Music!).
It’s a leadership thing.
Some decisions need to happen before other decisions can make sense.
Some projects need to stop before the team has room to execute the new priority.
Some ownership gaps need to be closed before the work can move without becoming another fire drill.
The move that matters is not always the biggest, sexiest move.
It’s not always the one people are yelling about.
It’s the move that makes the next right thing possible.
When everything feels urgent and important, don’t start by asking which task belongs in which quadrant.
Start with any of these questions:
That’s where clarity starts.
Not with a prettier list.
Not with another prioritization hack.
With the courage to name the real decision, sequence the work, and give people enough clarity to move without leaving the entire organization wondering what's going on.
We're slowly recovering from the rollover last week. My son's doing better this week, but we're still not out of the woods. Thanks for all the kind thoughts and well-wishes. It really did make the whole week seem better.
Through it all, thankfully, I still managed to get the important things in my life and work done. How? I learned a very simple way to prioritize my day so that what's really important gets handled. No. Matter. What.
About a year ago, I shared a brief overview of The PEACE System in one of the first season episodes. The one hurdle that people keep bringing to me is the never-ending to-do list. Despite prioritizing everything, there's a LOT of to-do's that still aren't getting done.
This week, we're digging into why.
Warning: you may be stepping on a few toes when you do, but never fear! The Spice Girls are here to help you!
Inside The PEACE System, I talk about three different kinds of to-do's. By paying attention to the different kinds of to-do's on your list, you can get a better handle on what is keeping you from getting more of the right things done.
Must-Do's are activities that must be done AND must be done by YOU, in order to reap the benefit. Generally, these are what I consider IPA - Important Personal Activities, or Income-Producing Activities. The definitions of those terms (like so many of the terms I use) are loose, and open to your interpretation. Brushing your teeth is a must-do. It's not likely you're going to get someone else to do it for you, and if you don't do it, well, there are consequences. Within the Must-Do category, there are a couple of types of Must-Do's - Routine/preventative (like brushing your teeth, seeing your kid's class play, or doing client work, for example), and Emergency (car roll-over, in-laws decided to drop in, that kind of thing).
The irony of many Emergency Must-Do's is that they are often (but not always) the result of NOT doing the Routine Must-Do's. If you don't get your tires checked on schedule, you could end up with a blowout on the freeway which causes the car to roll over - and the subsequent trip to the Emergency room. Do not skip the Routine stuff just because it's unsexy, or doesn't seem urgent. Preventative maintenance is crucial in your life and business!
Want To-Do's are all those activities related to the fun things we really want to do - like taking a trip (or planning it), visiting friends, working on a hobby, reading, watching a movie, etc. These aren't things that move the needle on our business, and they're not necessarily Must Do's, but we really want to do them. Chaotic and Fusion creatives tend to have a long list of Want To-Do's, which can lead to resentment, anger, frustration, and other disempowering emotions when you can't find the time to do those things. This typically results in an "all or nothing" rampage where work on everything else stops until you can clear some of the Want To-Do's off your list. Like the day I refused to do any work and just binge-watched my favorite show on Netflix all day. Not productive, but I sure did enjoy myself - until I started feeling guilty about not getting any work done.
Should-Do's are the bane of humanity. And I don't say that lightly. Everything from the well-meaning insinuations of your friends and family ("you should really finish packing for your trip, sweetie!"), to the more overt accusations we throw at ourselves ("I should really get to the gym this week!"), Should-Do's are the things that we throw into our day without making them a real priority. In the end, you may find yourself accomplishing a lot of Should-Do's, but not moving forward on your most important priorities at all. You sure are busy, but you're spinning your wheels on unimportant tasks - or worse, waffling from "should" to "should" - like bouncing back and forth between email and facebook messages for ten or fifteen minutes, just to be "sure" you're not missing anything important - and not getting anything accomplished at all.
Not that I speak from experience, or anything (sigh).
It's easy to get stuck in a "should-do" loop, and the only way to break the cycle is to make a decision. If it's a real priority, put it in your calendar and act on it appropriately. If you're not sure if it's a priority or not, try using the Eisenhower Matrix to help you get clarity. If it's not a priority, don't pretend like it is - even to appease your family or friends. In reality, you're doing a disservice to yourself and those well-meaning loved ones. Instead, set and enforce clear boundaries around your priorities and your time. And...
Be willing to accept the consequences of the priorities you set. (Tweet This)
Some people will balk at your new-found decisiveness. After all, you've been training them to give you all this well-meaning advice for a while now. It may take time to get them on board with this new direction. Your biggest fans, however, will understand that this is something you've got to do to take control of your calendar and start gaining momentum toward that Noble Empire and inspired life you're creating.
Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments, and let's be a rising tide fo everyone. If you're interested in learning more about The PEACE System, be sure to get on the wait list, as enrollment re-opens this fall.