My Struggle with Prioritizing Tasks as a CEO

Many days I feel pulled in a million directions. It takes so much effort to get back on track and know just what to focus on first.?Prioritizing work has long been one of my most difficult challenges.

I have been listening to the book,?Good to Great by Jim Collins?as part of a homework assignment from our EOS facilitator. I just completed the chapter that talked about how effective leaders and companies don't just keep adding new things to do, but create “Stop Doing Lists.”?The reason this e-newsletter is late is because I have not created a Stop Doing List.?Quite the contrary, I keep piling on the “To-Dos” then get so overwhelmed that I can’t even prioritize tasks effectively.

In Emergenetics profiling, I am a “yellow.” The?Emergenetics?Profile reveals your patterns of thinking and patterns of behavior. These patterns are your brain's preferences, also known as tendencies, habits or pathways. They emerge from BOTH your genetics (DNA) and your life experiences. Yellows are conceptual thinkers that have an expressed interest in new ideas, vision thinking and big picture thinking. Which sounds great until you realize that our weakness is chasing every idea, not knowing when to say “when” and thinking that everything is a possibility/opportunity! Great for my line of work when brainstorming with clients. Bad for each day when I take on too much and can’t weed through what I think is valuable and properly prioritize work.?

Today’s message is not providing you with a list of how you should be prioritizing tasks to manage all of the things coming at you better. Because even though I have tried to implement all of the best practices to improve this, I have not yet mastered it.?

My message is simply to tell you that you are not alone.?And if you are a yellow — all we can do is keep trying because none of us really want to be stressed and anxious. I am going to make a few promises to myself, once again. Prioritize what is on my plate. Create a Stop Doing List. Schedule time to work on the things that are priority. That’s it.??

If you can relate to this struggle or if you've mastered this and want to share some tips,?I'd love to hear from you!?

Remember, you are creative too.