95. How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Urgent

Do you ever look at your to-do list and feel completely paralyzed because everything feels important? Like if you don’t get all of it done, something will fall apart—at work, at home, or both!?

In today’s episode, I’m walking you through a simple but powerful 3-step system to help you cut through the chaos and finally figure out what matters right now. Whether you’re juggling a million roles (SLP, parent, partner, business owner...) or just managing a very full brain, this method will help you filter your to-do list, quiet the noise, and make confident decisions.

If you’ve got an ADHD brain (or a busy human brain), this one’s for you.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• Why your brain makes everything feel urgent (and what to do instead)
• The simple 3-step priority filter that helps you stop spinning and start deciding
• How to tell the difference between what’s urgent, what’s important, and what’s just noise
• Real-life examples of how this plays out in your roles as a clinician, parent, and human
• Why “getting everything done” is NOT the goal—and what to aim for instead

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 94: How to Close Open Loops
• Episode 14: Three Innovative Ways to Schedule Your Time as a Busy SLP
• Episode 18: Use My Time Buckets System to Manage Your Time (and an Exciting Offer!) 
• FREE DOWNLOAD: Time Buckets System
• 💬 Join the free SLP Support Group on Facebook for bonus trainings + conversations
• 📥 Want help building a custom system that works with your brain? Book a free consult

🧠 BONUS: Want to hear what to do with the “important but not urgent” stuff that never gets done? Catch this week’s FB Live inside the SLP Support Group. Just drop a 💬 in the group and I’ll tag you!

To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.

Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp

Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

Transcript

Speaker: [00:00:00] Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and Productivity Coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life than you are in the right place, let's dive in.

Hey, podcast listeners. Welcome back to the show. This is episode 95. I can't believe I'm getting this close to the hundredth episode, but I'm gonna focus on today's topic, which is all about prioritization. So if you have ever sat down, looked at your to-do list. And wanted to get started, but felt like everything on that list was important and you did not have any idea which one to begin with.

And if you felt like if you didn't get [00:01:00] everything done on that list, then life is going to fall apart. It means that you're a lousy SLP or a lousy business owner, a lousy mom, then this is the episode for you. The good news is that that is completely normal. That chaos, that overwhelm when you're looking at a long to-do list or even a short to-do list, is totally normal.

In fact, in last week's podcast episode, if you haven't heard it, it's episode 94. I talked all about how to, I talked all about open loops and how to close open loops. The importance of like what open loops are and the importance of closing them. So if this episode that we're talking about right now is helpful for you, go back and listen to episode 94 because.

Open loops are a huge component when it comes to to-do lists, okay? But what I want you to know is that there is a better way. You don't have to [00:02:00] sit down and look at that to-do list and feel overwhelmed, and feel confused, and feel like there is no clear starting point. There's no clear. Priority over the other tasks that are on that list.

It doesn't have to be like that. And in fact, in this episode, I'm gonna walk you through a really simple tool that I use with my coaching clients that's gonna cut through all of the noise of that to-do list and help you to figure out what actually matters right now. So that is our focus for today. Okay.

But first, let's talk about why. Prioritization feels so hard, whether you're thinking about your to-do lists and your open loops. Again, go back and listen to episode 94 as a parent, as a spouse, as a partner, as A SLP, or PT or OT or business owner or whatever role or roles you are [00:03:00] thinking of as you're looking at that list, right?

Prioritization is going to feel hard because your brain is telling you that everything is important, everything is urgent, everything is important. That's what your brain is telling you, especially if you lump together your tasks across different roles. So for example, if you have a to-do list that has, let's say.

Call doctor appointment to reschedule, uh, book orthodontist, appointment order dresses. I'm just giving you things that are on my list, by the way. Um, follow up on email with teacher, uh, outline podcast episodes. Record podcast episodes, finish grading exams, respond to student emails. Um, finish. Folding load of laundry, update the, [00:04:00] um, you know, uh, get caught up on your yard work, right?

Like I'm talking about tasks that are on my to-do list. Obviously, I'm just kind of going stream of consciousness right now. But all of those things. They go across different roles, so right. Once some of those things are my role as a parent, some of those tasks are related to my role as a, as a, a teacher, an instructor for grad and undergrad students.

Some of those things are related to my role as a homeowner. Some of them are related to my role as a coach or a business owner. There's so many different categories of tasks and different roles that we serve that can lead to overwhelm, right. Then and there. So when you're seeing a to-do list that has all of those things across different roles, that first and foremost can create chaos and overwhelm.

And your brain is like, I don't know what's going on here, but everything feels really, really important. And if I'm focusing on one thing, I'm not focusing on another thing. And so how do I know which one to start [00:05:00] with? Okay. But what happens is. For those of us who are high achievers, for those of us who are empaths or you know, in a service profession like speech pathology, and for those of us who are neurodivergent, have neurodivergent brains, right?

It can be incredibly common to feel like. Everything is on fire. It's a total dumpster fire, right? And I need to go, go, go, and do, do, do. But all that does is create mental burnout. And what you may have already noticed is that sometimes that leads to nothing getting done or maybe the quote unquote wrong things getting done right.

So. This can be incredibly difficult to quiet the noise and figure out where to start, alright? But the reality of this situation, regardless of what your brain [00:06:00] starts to tell you, the reality. Is that it does not all have to happen today. And so whatever thoughts your brain's offering you, as you're looking at that to-do list, I want you to gently challenge those thoughts.

So if your brain is saying, I have nowhere to start, challenge that and ask yourself, okay, well what are my first guesses of where to start? Or if I knew where to start. Yeah. Where would that be? Or if I was working with a one-on-one coach, what were, where would my coach tell me to start? Right? If your brain is telling you everything has to happen now, it all has to get done today, challenge that.

Is that true? Does it truly all have to happen today? Right, because when everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. When everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. We have to filter. And so what we're gonna do today is build a simple [00:07:00] system that's going to help you to do this thinking, to work through these thoughts, this overwhelm.

Okay? And so. I have no fancy word or phrase to describe this system. Okay? This is one system that I have kind of come up with, and I as always will encourage you to take this in, take what serves you, what helps you leave, what doesn't. Okay? But one of the ways that I approach this is through a filter, a filter system.

It's basically like a priority filter. Okay? Now. There's a few different ways that you can do this. This is there, actually, there are many ways that you can do this. Okay? This is one way, and as I said before, take what serves you, leave what doesn't, but also think about how can you customize this as you're listening to this system, how can you customize it, individualize it, and use it in a way that's going to work for you?

[00:08:00] Always, that's always the invitation. And that's something that I do with my one-on-one coaching clients is, okay, here's one system, here's one process. What do we like about it? What do we see as potential hurdles or obstacles? What isn't making sense or resonating? What do we need to modify? Let's test it out and let's review and let's modify and let's test it out and let's review and you get the idea.

Okay, so this system comes in. Three separate steps. Okay. The first step, if you know me, you can guess what it is, is to brain dump. Okay. Whenever I'm thinking about what I have to do, and let's say that I'm not at the point of having that to-do list in place yet, okay, let's just say we're in the, in the process of creating the to-do list, I always start with a brain dump.

So I take every little task that's floating in my head and I stick it on paper in a list. Start there. Okay. [00:09:00] I also will, when I'm struggling with this, 'cause sometimes it can be difficult, I will set a five minute timer and that will help me give, it'll help gimme some, some guardrails or some sort of direction.

So I'm like, okay, I am not gonna get stuck in the brain dump because that timer is here. I can see it once it goes off. I know there may or may not be more things that I need to add and I get to decide. Then in there if I want to add those things and kind of push past that timer, but at least give yourself that timer to get going.

Especially for those of you who have a DHD or suspect that you have a DHD. Okay. Now, that's sort of the basic level for step number one, but I wanna give you the next level, sort of like the more advanced, higher level for step one. We're still in that brain dump. Spot. Okay. We haven't moved on yet, but as I mentioned before, when you [00:10:00] have a to-do list that crosses your roles, it introduces overwhelm and chaos for your brain.

So one of the ways that we can sort of counter for that is by categorizing and. If you've been here a while, you may remember, you may even use my, uh, time Buckets system. It's a planning system that I use each week where I have created different time buckets, so to speak, so different categories of roles that take my time, that that require time, attention, focus.

Energy and I like to categorize my tasks according to those buckets. And what I will do in the show notes is I will link to this time bucket system. I've mentioned it many, many different times, no pun intended. I've mentioned it many times, and I [00:11:00] will link to that time bucket system. If you wanna see exactly how to do this, it gives you the papers, you know, the worksheets, the structure that will walk you right through it.

And give you a place to house all of this information. So definitely go and check that out. I'll also link to the. Podcast episodes where I have talked about this time bucket system, okay? So that you can learn more about this system. But the focus today is not necessarily on this system. It's about creating this priority framework, this priority filter, and you can use the time bucket system as part of that process.

So whether you use that system or you just create your own sort of categories. For those things that you're brain dumping, whatever works for you, but give yourself some of that structure to help reduce that overwhelm. Okay, so you've got step number one is the simple brain dump [00:12:00] using a timer, preferably, and then if you wanna level up step number one, it is to categorize those tasks.

One other thing that I will add before we move on to step number two. Is, I've done this two different ways as I'm doing this brain dump and doing these categories, you know, essentially using my time bucket system, sometimes I will. Start with those buckets. I'll use those buckets or those roles and I'll say, okay, what are the things I have to get done this week for my family?

What are the things I have to get done this week for my coaching clients? What are the things I have to get done this week for the house? What are the things I have to get done this week with my husband or for myself and our relationship? Right? So I might start there or. Other ways I will do it. The other way I will do it is do the brain dump without worrying about those [00:13:00] roles and responsibilities.

And once I see what shakes out on the brain dump, then I will categorize them into those buckets. I do it both ways and honestly, I don't really have a simple explanation of why. Sometimes I do it one way and sometimes I do it another way. It seems to just be the way that my brain is operating that day and I go with it, rather than trying to swim upstream against the current.

I just follow where my mind is, and either way, we're getting that same, we're getting to that same destination, which is a categorized to-do list. Alright? That's step number one. Step number two is once you have each task, and again, strongly, strongly, encourage you to have these categorized, and maybe this will become more apparent why, why this is helpful as you hear the other steps of this process.

But step number two is to look at those tasks and to ask yourselves the following [00:14:00] questions. Okay? Again, lots of different ways that you can do this, but here are some basic. Starting points for yourself. The three questions that I ask are, number one, is this urgent. Number two, is this important. Number three is this just noise, and I'm gonna walk you through each of these so that it makes more sense.

Okay? Now, urgent versus important, let's start there. Some of you who are my productivity nerds or time management nerds you may have heard of or even use the Eisenhower squares. I'm not gonna go into all of that, but urgency and importance are. The two main components of that process. And I think though that this is something that people confuse urgency and importance.

They're very easy to confuse. But if you're following this system, this will help you start to flush this out. So let's talk about [00:15:00] what urgent means and what important means so that you can hopefully walk away understanding the difference. This took me a while. I will be honest. Urgency and importance took me a while to kind of differentiate and really help it settle in.

So if this is a little bit confusing or feels a little clumsy for you, do not panic. Nothing has gone wrong. Urgent essentially means there is a deadline. Or there is some sort of consequence that will happen if you do the task or don't do the task. Okay, so urgent there's some sort of time stamp on it or some sort of negative off a negative consequence that's related to it.

Okay. It doesn't necessarily have to have both of those things, but oftentimes it does. So for example. In. If I'm thinking about something that's urgent and I'm looking at these, this list of things, let's say I am looking at my to-do [00:16:00] list and I'm seeing, okay, I have to submit grades for my students. Well, the question I'll ask myself is, when are those grades due?

What is the deadline? What is the deadline? And I will oftentimes write that deadline right next to it on the to-do list because if you are holding that in your brain, you are wasting space. It's a wasted data, basically. Right. So I'll just write it right there on the to-do list, even if I think I know it, even if I know I know it.

Even if I'm like, no, I don't need to write it down. I've got this. I'll put it in writing. What is the deadline? Is there a deadline? Sometimes there is no deadline. Now, sometimes there's no deadline, but there is a potential consequence. So for example, you might have something like, let's see, I'm trying to think of an example that's.

On the spot here. I'm never good at this. Thinking of something right on the [00:17:00] fly, let's say that you've got a task on your list that there isn't a necessarily a due date. So it's not like submitting grades where you can only get in there and enter those grades for so long, but maybe it's something like you owe somebody an email, a response, and there is no deadline for that response, but the longer you let it go.

There may be a negative consequence, so perhaps you put that email off, you put that email response off, and what happens is, let's say somebody you know moves forward. The person who's waiting for you to reply and they move forward without your reply, and that may create some sort of negative situation.

Uh, let's see. I've been in contact with my kids' teachers quite a lot lately, and so there is. There [00:18:00] isn't necessarily a deadline that I have to respond by as we're emailing back and forth, but if I don't respond and then my kids go to school that day, perhaps at school that day, their teacher may not have the important information that I think, you know, the information that I think they need to know.

And so then maybe my child has a more difficult day at school because I didn't convey or communicate the information that my teacher needs their, their teacher needs to hear. Right? So there's no deadline per se, but it's gonna have a consequence on potentially on their day. Okay? That's probably not the best example, but just go with me here.

Okay? So that's urgency. Now it's interesting. I don't know if you caught it. I caught it as I was talking through urgency I and gave you that last example. I heard myself use the word important. So let's talk about that other piece. I. Right. Step number two, or I [00:19:00] guess I should say question number two, is this important?

Now, so many times we put things on our to-do list that don't matter. That really don't matter. We think they do. Sometimes we believe that they matter. We believe that they're important, and we put it down and we don't even stop to question the validity of that. We don't stop to question if that's actually true.

Is this important? Now only you can decide what is or is not important. There are a couple ways I like to do this, two ways that I do this is number one, is this task related to a goal of mine, right? Is this something that is related to a goal or related to a, I don't know, a plan that. Might not necessarily be urgent.

There might not be any deadline. There [00:20:00] might not even be any consequence of whether I do or don't finish this task, but it might relate to a goal and that then makes it important, right? So you can see how we can establish importance but not urgency. The other piece of this with how I gauge what is or isn't important.

Comes back to my values and needs, and I've done a bunch of episodes about values and needs. I will try to link to those in the show notes as well. We talk about this a lot in the SLP support group, so if you're not in the SLP support group, jump in because. I truly, truly believe that knowing what your core values are and knowing what your core needs are can help to help you to spend your time and invest your time in things that truly do matter and can also help you avoid investing time in things that don't matter.[00:21:00] 

Sometimes we put things on our list that. We don't necessarily have to do. There isn't a deadline. It's not even related to a value or a need of ours. And then it's like, why are we spending the time on it? If we agree that time is, I believe our most valuable resource. If we agree that time is finite, you only have so much of it.

Why are we going to spend the time on something that doesn't actually matter? But only you can answer that question. So again, two ways that you can determine importance is, does this task relate to a goal of mine? Does this task relate to a value or a need? Okay, so you can see how some of these things, like I said, could be important but not urgent.

They could also be urgent, but not important. Now, does this mean that it has to be both in order for you to keep that task there and do it? No, not at all. But this is a way for you to start filtering what [00:22:00] actually has to get done and when it actually has to get done. Because sometimes there are things that are important that are important, but are not urgent that I will absolutely prioritize on my to-do list, for example.

Exercise movement. Okay. It's not necessarily urgent. There is no deadline per se, but it's important to me because, because it is one of my core needs. And so that could be something that I might easily before anyway, might easily have put off, moved lower on the list, or not even, it might not have even made the list, it might not have ever gotten done.

Because it wasn't urgent. But if we're only operating our to-do list from a place of urgency, we are failing. If we're only operating our to-do list from a place of importance, we're failing. We're missing the mark. So you have to decide for yourself, is this important? And [00:23:00] sometimes things can be important and urgent, right?

So you have to keep that in mind, for example. Maybe you are submitting your grades right for me, I'm talking about me now. So as a, as a grad instructor and an undergrad instructor, maybe submitting grades is both urgent and important. It might even make my to-do list before it becomes urgent. So think about that too, because sometimes I'll just brain dump, right?

And we're, we're not filtering as we're brain dumping. We're just putting anything that pops in our mind. And so I might write it down and realize, well, it is important, but the deadline is not until the end of the month and I've still got two weeks. So there is no real sense of urgency here. I have more time.

I can choose to do it now or do it later. Okay. All right, so we talked through urgency, we talked through importance, and then I also mentioned a third question. Is [00:24:00] it just noise? Because sometimes, like I said with this example, I think might be a good one with the submission of grades. That would be something.

If I'm putting it on my list, that might just be noise for a little while. It might not be urgent right now, it is important. It might look urgent, but it actually isn't urgent, not yet. And so right now it's just sort of noise. It's static in my brain. Now, interestingly enough, a lot of times the things that are noise do eventually become urgent.

They do eventually become important. They just might not be urgent and important right now. Other times, things that are just noise are. Never urgent and never important. It's just something that our brain offered for us to do. And so we can have it on that to-do list and then decide, okay, well do I wanna delete this?

Do I wanna delegate [00:25:00] it? Do I wanna just hold off? And that would be something that I would consider to be noise at the time. Okay. But keep in mind here that most of the tasks, not always, not all of them, but most of the tasks that make our list are either urgent or important. Most of them are not both urgent and important.

But if you are doing this, and you are starting to define these tasks according to these questions, and you notice that there are tasks on your list that are both urgent and important. That is an easy, hello. Let's go start here. Okay, that's an easy priority right there. So if you notice that things are urgent and important, they would go to the top of the list.

Alright, so you're working through those questions. Is it urgent? Is it important, or is it just noise? All right. Now the third [00:26:00] step and the final step of this process is to decide. So step number one was we're dumping it, we're brain dumping it. Step number two is we're defining it, urgent, important, or noise.

And step number three is to decide on it. Lots of different ways that you can do this. Okay, I'm gonna give you a couple of options I like to do as I'm looking at this list. I like to prioritize according to today, what has to happen today. Then I choose or highlight the things that have to happen this week.

They don't necessarily have to happen today, but they have to happen this week. And then the third kind of category here might be what I just mentioned, things that I'm going to either delay, so I'm holding off on them. Things that I'm going to maybe delete, I'm not gonna do them at all, or things that I'm gonna delegate.

I'm gonna sign to somebody else to [00:27:00] do. Okay, so there are lots of different ways that you can execute this step, this decided step, this is one of them. What I'm gonna do today, what I'm gonna do this week, and then what I'm going to either delete, delegate, or delay. There's lots of other ways that you can do this.

I'll throw out a couple of options for you. Um, one that I have used and that I often use is sort of red, yellow, green. This is really helpful probably for my A DHD brain. This might be very helpful. For those of you who are neurodivergent or suspect that you are, I might not necessarily go through that.

List and kind of categorize them according to today, this week, and then delay delegate, delete Instead, I might look at that list and highlight the things that absolutely have to happen. [00:28:00] Yeah, whether it's today or this week, depending upon if you're a daily planner or a weekly planner, maybe you're both, it's, you know, that's something we work on in, in coaching, but I will highlight the things that are green that have to happen.

Like, so the green are the things that are urgent, important, urgent and important, and they get highlighted green, and so I'm doing them. No matter what yellow is like, okay, these are important. Maybe they're a little bit less urgent, I have a little bit more time. So I mark them as yellow. I highlight them as yellow, and then the reds are the things that I'm not going to be doing right now or might not be doing ever.

And that's a quick, easy way for my brain to look at this list and to see very quickly where I'm starting. What I'm doing, what I'm not doing. So if that whole do today, do this week, and then delay, delegate, delete isn't really working for you, you [00:29:00] can use that green, yellow, red highlighting strategy. You can also do this as like a 1, 2, 3.

So number one means like this is the tasks, these are the tasks that are very urgent and important. Number two is like your yellows, right? And then number three is like your reds. So you can have more than one. One, you could have more than one twos, you could have more than one threes. So you might go through and just sort of mark, okay, everything that's super important and urgent gets marked as a number one.

And that's what I'm starting with. The things that are like mediocre, they get marked as a number two, and then the things that are sort of not important and urgent or not urgent, or maybe I don't have to do it. All those get marked as number threes regardless of how you do this. This step, this step three of deciding absolutely helps you quiet the noise.

It's a [00:30:00] filter that you can run your list through that's going to give you this sense of relief. It's gonna create this, this ease. It's gonna relieve some of that burden so that you can actually see this list. Be less emotionally attached to it because I know you, I know lots of you who aren't listening are very emotionally attached to your to-do list, and that's a topic for another day.

But by doing this three step process. This is helping you to ease that burden and to give you a, a little bit more of a healthier sense of distance, I would say. But also giving you more power. It's helping you step into empowerment. Okay. All right, so let's run through a couple of quick examples. 'cause I tried to give you a few that were mediocre.

I'm gonna give you a couple that I'm hoping are gonna be better and we'll see how this works. Okay, so let's say you do [00:31:00] your brain dump. You do your categorizing, whether you do that on your own or you're using my time bucket system. Let's say you're looking at your category. Category of you as a professional, so your role as an SLP or a PT or OT or whatever that looks like for you.

Let's say you've got two things on your list. Well, I am sure you have many things on your list. Let's say two of the things on your list are working on an evaluation. Where the report is due on Friday. And another thing on your list is answering emails. This is, I think, a relatively easy one. So before you but, but before you like, tune me out, stay with me because I'm gonna tell you why you get stuck in this trap, whether you realize it or not.

Okay. So this looks on paper like an easy answer. Yes. Friday evaluation report do gonna start there? Absolutely. The emails are not so urgent. I don't have [00:32:00] to get to those right now. I'm gonna prioritize the thing that's due on Friday, right? This seems super obvious, but if it were that easy, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast.

You wouldn't be in the SLP support group. You wouldn't be thinking about one-on-one coaching. You wouldn't be human if it were that easy because it's simply not that easy. Typically what we do is we don't run these tasks through that filter. We just have on our list eval report. Email response, and then a bunch of other things.

And when our brain sees that our brain is typically gonna wanna go for the easiest thing, the low hanging fruit, let's answer these emails. I need more time to do the evaluation report. I need to have more. I need to be in the right head space to do this. I need more information to do this right. So if we're not going through this three step filter process, dump it, define it, and decide it, then we [00:33:00] could very easily go for the low hanging fruit and avoid the thing that's going to feel uncomfortable, avoid the thing that's gonna feel difficult.

Sometimes we'll also do it in a way like. I am, uh, how can I say this? Um, so maybe it's something like, well, I know that I'm gonna get that evaluation report done no matter what. So let me start with the emails, because I work best with the deadline. And if I really. Get through all the other things that have to get done and, and finish those.

Then I'll have the mind, the, you know, the, the brain space to be able to focus on the evaluation. And it'll be more urgent because it's closer to the deadline and I'm gonna have to get it done 'cause it's crunch time. Okay. Raise your hand if you can relate. My hand is raised however. You are using that against yourself, you know?

You know that when you get to [00:34:00] that point and you work on that evaluation report, sure you might meet that deadline. Great, wonderful. But how does it feel when you're doing it? How does it feel? It probably doesn't feel good. It probably feels incredibly stressful, incredibly overwhelming. You're panicked, you're probably staying up really late to get it done, or you're sacrificing your, you know, exercise your time with your family or, or your spouse, or maybe you are letting you know things fall behind at home because you're up against the clock and you wanna get the evaluation report done.

It doesn't feel good in the process. It only feels good when you submit it and you get that little dopamine hit of like, oh, look at this. I did it. It was so hard, but I got it done and I'm amazing. And then the dopamine hit passes and you feel lousy. You feel exhausted. Now you're trying to sort of breathe and reboot and restore, [00:35:00] but you're doing that while you still have all these other unfinished tasks that are on your list and you feel like crap.

So. Why do we put ourselves through that instead? Let's flip it on its head and try it this way. Let's try it by starting with the thing that's urgent and important, and imagine what that might feel like. Imagine if you could write that report, submit it without feeling all of that stress, pressure, and anxiety, and then you get to those emails and you get them done.

Easy breezy. Okay, so that's. One example from your role as a professional as an SLP. Let me give you one other example as a mom, because this is one that I absolutely have, have worked through or am working through right now. When I was doing my to-do list over the weekend, as a mom, I know, okay, my daughter's got a field trip that's coming up.

I have to sign the permission slip and send in the money, and. I am pausing because [00:36:00] I'm like, oh my gosh, did I do that? Did I actually submit it? Yes, I did. Okay. This was a recent example. I also have this goal, this personal goal of organizing our photos, our electronic, our digital photos. That is a 2025 goal of mine, and that might make my list, right?

So go through and organize photos from the last week or something like that. Now, if I'm looking at this list. Both of those feel important. Both of those are important. If I don't submit that permission slip, she can't go on the field trip. If I don't organize these photos, I'm still going to be struggling and scrambling to find the photos that I need when I need them.

Right? But urgency, the urgency is different here. The permission slip is more urgent than the photos because there is a deadline. For the permission slip and if, and there's also a consequence if I don't send that in, she will not be able [00:37:00] to go on the trip. Whereas if I don't organize my photos, nothing bad is going to happen.

Nothing bad, nothing immediate is going to happen. So that's an easy way right there for me to decide. Okay, we're gonna focus on the permission slip first, then we'll do the organizing photos later. Okay. Now. My brain, I don't know if your brain is going here, but my brain is saying, well, Theresa, if you keep operating from this framework, the things that are not urgent are never gonna get done.

And that's not true, okay? But it is easy to get stuck in that trap. So it's easy for me to sort of delay the organizing photos for the things that are urgent, and then it becomes this thing that's on your list of goals. For years, ask me how. I know there are ways that you can work around that. And I hear this from you all, all the time.

I hear this from my coaching clients all the time, like [00:38:00] especially my private practice owners that I work with, where it's like, well, I have to submit payroll or my employees aren't gonna get paid, but I also, you know, want to update our manual, our employee manual or handbook, but that's not as urgent.

Nothing bad is gonna happen if that doesn't get done. And so then that becomes the thing that never gets done. That's a topic for another day. That's something that we do in one-on-one coaching a lot, but trust the process and trust that there are ways that you can, you kind of put in these, like fail, what is, what is the word I'm trying to think of?

Like a fail safe way. I don't even know what the hell I'm trying to, what the hell I'm trying to tell you. But I will be actually going live in the SLP support group to talk about that very topic, how to prioritize the things that are important but aren't urgent so that they don't become these just lingering things [00:39:00] on your list that never actually get done.

So if that's something that you. Struggling with, make sure you're in the SLP support group so that you'll have access to that training. Okay. Alright. Let me re, re, I'm laughing because what I was going to say, what I was trying to say was, let me recap, but it was coming out as, let me crapp, I'm not recapping.

I am recapping. Okay. So if you are still with me very quickly. We've got a three step priority filter system that I've walked you through. Step number one is dump it and then bonus level up for that step is to categorize it. Step number two is to define it. Is it urgent? Is it important? Is it noise? Step number three is to decide it.

I talked to you through a few different ways you could do this. I basically gave you option one, which would be identify what you do today. Uh, identify what you do [00:40:00] later and then later this week, and then identify what you either don't, do you do much later or you delegate to somebody else? I also talked to you through other ways to do this, like red, yellow, green, or number one, number two, number three, right?

Categorizing these tasks according to all your number ones. All your number twos. All your number threes, which are basically your red, yellow, green. Or in the flip order. You got me. Hopefully you got me. Okay. That is a little recap. Of this system, but if this episode really resonated with you, if you have follow up questions, if you're like, oh, but they didn't, you didn't help me with this, or Now I don't know how to do that, right?

Make sure you get in the SLP support group where I'll be talking more about this topic on a deeper level. This week. Okay. I am gonna break down how you can make sure that the things that are not urgent, but are important [00:41:00] get done. And I'm gonna be also talking this through, especially through the lens of A DHD.

So gonna be focusing on how your A DHD brain. Specifically struggles with prioritization. 'cause some of you're listening to this and you're like, okay, yeah, all of this sounds really good, but I'm still not really sure how to do this. I try to do it, it doesn't go so well. Right. So that's what we're gonna be covering in the SOP support group.

'cause I wanna help you to build systems that actually work for your brain. They work with your brain and for your brain, not against your brain, right? So even if you don't have an A DHD diagnosis, this information is still helpful because let's be honest, we're all juggling too much. We all have very, very busy brains.

And so everything that I have to offer in the SLP support group and here on the podcast is gonna be helpful for those who have a neurodivergent brain [00:42:00] and those who have a neurotypical brain. So make sure you join the SLP support group. If you are not in there, the link is always in the show notes. And let me know in the group if you want me to tag you on these lives.

You can drop a, I don't know, an emoji. You can send me a dm, you can post whatever it is to let me, to let me know that you want access to that information so that you don't miss it. All right? And as always, if you want help creating your own. Custom priority system. Then book a consult, right? I can help you do this.

I can help you do something that's going to work for you. The link to a free consult is always in the show notes. All right? So hope to see you in the SOP support group. Maybe we'll get to talk one-on-one in a consult. And as always, I'll be back here next week with another podcast episode. Talk [00:43:00] [00:44:00] soon.