Overwhelmed at Work? Introducing the Revenue Generating Priorities Method

“If everything is a priority, then nothing is priority.”

This is your friendly reminder that if everything feels like a priority, it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate. When you have a ton of work to do, you’re constantly overwhelmed, and you feel behind at work, it’s a sign to slow down. 

You cannot think clearly when you are stressed out and trying to keep up with the hamster wheel of never ending tasks on your to do list. It sounds crazy but the antidote to being busy is to do nothing. That’s right. This is your permission to slow down, step off the hamster wheel of work and re-evaluate what is most important to your role and your job. 

And I’m going to support you along the way. Keep reading to learn how you can refocus your priorities and focus on the tasks that will make an impact at work. 

I’m going to share a secret with you that I learned 6 years ago…. It was a total game changer for how I operate and prioritize my workdays. For YEARS I would end my work day thinking to myself, “ok today was really busy but what the heck did I even get done?”. I was constantly busy, only half completing tasks that needed to get done, and I would end every week wondering why progress wasn’t being made. My goals weren’t being met, I was answering the same emails over and over again, and I didn’t have time to work on projects I actually wanted to work on.

It was a maddening state to be in. If you’re experiencing this same exact stressed out but unproductive season at work, I’m going to share how to categorize your work and focus on what is most important to your success. 

Welcome to the Revenue Generating Priorities Method. 

First, what I need you to do is grab a blank piece of paper. With that blank piece of paper, I want you to write down everything on your to do list. Go back through your inbox, skim your calendar, re-read through all the notes you took this week. Write it all down on your piece of paper. 

Next, review those tasks and as you are reviewing each task, ask yourself “which of these tasks will bring me the most success?” Success to you will likely mean something entirely different than what success looks like for me in my job but I can bet that some of the emails you’re responding to aren’t necessarily crucial for success in your job. Think about the emails that actually needed to be responded to urgently and then recognize the other emails that were answered simply because they were easier to knock off your inbox. Perform this same exercise for meetings you’ve attended recently. Which meetings were crucial to your success and which… could have been an email? 

From there, circle or highlight all the tasks that are crucial to your success in your job. 

Congratulations - you have just taken the time to step off the hamster wheel of busyness, re-evaluated your workload AND have highlighted which tasks are priority for you.

Now that you have highlighted the most crucial tasks, you have identified your “revenue generating priorities”. These are the tasks that you need to focus on immediately. When you are frozen in a state of “what do I work on now?” go to your revenue generating tasks and do those first. I’d recommend focusing on these tasks when you are most productive throughout the day - or when you are in a state of flow. 

Now… we can’t forget about the rest of the tasks on your to do list. Go back to that piece of paper and take a look at all the other tasks that were not highlighted or circled.  Underline the tasks that are important but… don’t need an immediate response. These are the tasks you could save for Thursday or Friday when motivation is low and you can knock out some busy work. I recommend finding an open time block on your calendar where you can schedule “admin work” time to work on these tasks. They are important but they do not need to be done immediately and can be pushed to another day, if need be. 

Lastly, take a look at everything that isn’t highlighted, circled, or underlined. These are called your “non revenue generating” tasks. These are the tasks that (like, me) you are probably putting WAY too much time into and they are not paying back dividends. Leave these tasks for a slow day. Or heck - delegate these tasks or delete them altogether. Do you really need to do them anyways?

If you’ve got a ton of work to do… it will be worthwhile to re-evaluate how much work, what type of work, and how the work relates to your success on a daily basis so you can get out of the rut of overwhelm and into a state of productivity and progress. 

And good news - if you’re still feeling overwhelmed at work… I’m hosting a FREE WORKSHOP: Unblock what's keeping you stuck at work. Registration is officially open! Pick the time that works best for your calendar, schedule it, and all you have to do is show up! This workshop is here to help you navigate all the pressures of work and you’ll leave with actionable steps to improve your work life. Sign up here! 😎