How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Urgent: Two Tools Every Leader Needs

If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “I just need one clear day to catch up,” you’re in good company.

It is so easy to get caught up in the problems that are right in front of us, or to prioritize that “squeaky wheel” that needs the grease. 

I’ve learned firsthand and in working with my clients that most ambitious professionals don’t have a time problem, they have a clarity problem.

They’re spinning in constant reactivity, answering every ping, managing every task, and saying yes before thinking it through. Everything feels urgent, so everything gets equal weight.

White space isn't about wasted time. It's leadership capacity.

Sound familiar?

That’s what happens when you try to lead without a filter.

You can’t be strategic when your brain is stuck in survival mode, just trying to get through the day.

The good news? Clarity isn’t magic — it’s method. 

And two simple frameworks can help you create it: the Eisenhower Matrix and the Impact/Effort Matrix.

Both are powerful leadership prioritization tools — but they serve different purposes in your career. 

If you’re ready to stop reacting and start leading, these two frameworks will show you how.

The Eisenhower Matrix: How to Stop Being Reactive at Work (and Life)

When your to-do list feels like quicksand, the Eisenhower Matrix is your rescue rope.

 It helps you separate what’s truly important from what’s just loud, so you can finally breathe — and think.

Let’s break it down. 

This matrix is contains 4 quadrants where you can rank importance against urgency:

• Important / Urgent — Do it now — critical deadlines, client issues, true fires

• Important / Not Urgent — Schedule it — deep work, team development, strategy

• Not Important / Urgent — Delegate it — admin tasks, logistics

• Not Important / Not Urgent — Delete it — busywork, guilt tasks, ego projects

How this might look

Let’s say your VP asks you last-minute for a deck update for a client meeting tomorrow morning, while you’re preparing for a board meeting this afternoon.

You panic — both feel urgent. But when you map them:

• The board prep (Important + Urgent) = Do it now.

• The deck update (Not Important + Urgent…but slightly less so) = Delegate it.

Label it, and your brain stops spinning. You take back the wheel.

Within a week of using this matrix, clients often report:

• 20–30% fewer “panic hours” on their calendar

• Clearer communication around priorities

• Noticeable drop in “fire-drill fatigue”

The Eisenhower Matrix isn’t just a productivity tool — it’s a regulation tool. It gets you out of reaction and back into leadership presence.

How Often to Use It (and How It Really Works)

🔹 1️⃣ Use it as a weekly clarity reset, not a daily grind tool.

The biggest misconception is that you’re supposed to sort every single task every day. That’s not only unsustainable — it defeats the point.

The Eisenhower Matrix works best when you use it to reorient your focus, not micromanage your to-do list.

Recommended cadence:

• Weekly: At the start of your week (or Sunday night/Monday morning), spend 15 minutes listing key tasks and mapping them into quadrants.

• Midweek: Quick 3-minute scan to adjust if priorities have shifted.

Think of it like a GPS recalibration. You don’t need to rebuild the map daily — just make sure you’re still heading in the right direction.

🔹 2️⃣ Use it in real-time when you feel reactive.

If you catch yourself spiraling — saying yes too fast, firefighting, or multitasking — pause and ask:

“Which quadrant is this really in?”

That quick self-check is what rewires the habit. It turns the matrix from a framework into a mindset.

🔹 3️⃣ Use it after big changes or role shifts.

Whenever your workload, team, or goals shift, re-run the exercise. It’s especially powerful:

• After a promotion or org restructure

• At the start of a new project or quarter

• Post-vacation or after burnout recovery

Why? Because clarity doesn’t stay static. It evolves with your responsibilities — and this framework keeps you aligned with what’s truly yours to own.

A suggested rhythm:

TIMING	USE CASE	FOCUS
Weekly (10–15 min)	Planning and alignment	Clarify what’s important vs urgent before the week begins
Ad hoc (2 min)	Midday or midweek reactivity check	Pause before responding to something new or loud
Quarterly (30 min)	Strategic recalibration	Audit patterns — where did most of your energy actually go?

Creating White Space: The Hidden ROI of Clarity

Most leaders think time management is about fitting more in. 

The truth? 

It’s about making room for what matters most.

When you use the Eisenhower Matrix consistently, you start to see how much of your calendar is filled with Not Important work — tasks that look responsible but actually keep you stuck in reactivity.

Cut the noise. That’s how you get your calendar, and your capacity, back. 

It creates white space — the unscheduled breathing room that lets you:

• Think strategically instead of reactively.

• Spot patterns before they become problems.

• Handle true emergencies with calm instead of chaos.

White space isn’t wasted time. It’s leadership capacity.

It’s the margin that gives you access to your best ideas — the ones that don’t appear when you’re booked back-to-back.

If you’re always “at capacity,” this framework helps you see that what’s missing isn’t time — it’s space. And space is what turns management into leadership.

The Impact/Effort Matrix: How to Prioritize for Maximum Impact

Once you’ve calmed the chaos with the Eisenhower Matrix, you’ll eventually hit a new kind of challenge — not too much noise, but too many good options.

That’s where the Impact/Effort Matrix comes in.

It’s the tool that helps you make strategic choices about what’s actually worth your energy.

Let's break this one down.

Similar to the Eisenhower Matrix, this tool has 4 quadrants where you map Impact against Effort.

• High Impact / Low Effort — Quick Wins — actions that create visible momentum

• High Impact / High Effort — Strategic Projects — long-term investments that drive results

• Low Impact / Low Effort — Low-Value Tasks — minimize or delegate

• Low Impact / High Effort — Time Wasters — eliminate completely

How this might look

Imagine your team has five improvement ideas on the table:

1. Redesigning the onboarding manual

2. Updating your project-tracking software

3. Launching a mentorship pilot

4. Planning the holiday retreat

5. Overhauling client reports

You plot each:

• The mentorship pilot = High Impact / Low Effort → Quick Win (do it now).

• The software overhaul = High Impact / High Effort → Strategic Project (plan and resource).

• The retreat = Low Impact / High Effort → Time Waster (rethink or delay).

Within a quarter, leaders who use this matrix consistently see:

• More focused team meetings (fewer “update spirals”)

• Clearer alignment on what actually moves KPIs

• Higher perceived strategic thinking from senior leadership

If the Eisenhower Matrix helps you manage today, the Impact/Effort Matrix helps you design tomorrow.

How Often to Use It

The Impact/Effort Matrix is not a daily decision tool — it’s a strategic planning tool.

Use it when you’re choosing what to tackle next or aligning your team around quarterly or project-based priorities.

Recommended cadence:

• Quarterly: Ideal for planning cycles, team retreats, or strategic reviews.

• Monthly: When setting focus areas or OKRs.

• As needed: Anytime your plate is full and everything seems “important.”

Think of it as your energy investment filter — a way to make sure your effort always maps to real impact.

What It Creates: Leverage and Momentum

If the Eisenhower Matrix creates white space, the Impact/Effort Matrix creates leverage.

White space gives you breathing room; leverage gives you lift.

When you start prioritizing based on impact over effort, a few powerful things happen:

• You stop doing the work that looks productive but doesn’t move the needle.

• You start stacking small, high-impact wins that build visible progress.

• You identify where to invest time and resources for sustainable growth.

In practice, that means:

• Choosing to refine one process that saves your team 10 hours a week instead of answering one more “urgent” email.

• Saying no to projects that drain resources but deliver little ROI.

• Channeling your effort into what creates momentum — not motion.

The Impact/Effort Matrix turns white space into opportunity space. It helps you take the calm you’ve created and turn it into strategic acceleration.

Which Leadership Framework Do You Need Right Now?

Ask yourself one simple question:

“Am I trying to calm the chaos — or clarify my direction?”

If you’re overwhelmed and need to regain control and get centered → start with Eisenhower.

If you’re steady but scattered on where to focus next → use Impact/Effort.

You can’t think strategically until you can think clearly.

So first, regulate. Then, optimize.

The Leadership Shifts These Tools Create

Shift	Description
From Reaction → Discernment	Eisenhower helps you stop confusing urgency with importance.
From Discernment → Strategy	Impact/Effort helps you focus your limited energy where it matters most.
From Pressure → Presence	Both strengthen clarity, calm, and emotional regulation — the foundation of sustainable leadership.

When you know how to prioritize when everything feels urgent, you stop running your day on adrenaline and start leading it with intention.

Where to Go Next

Ready to stop running on adrenaline and start leading with intention? Join me for my free masterclass:

Accelerate Your Career in 90 Days

Learn the 3 hidden barriers that keep even high-performing women stuck in reactive management mode — and the framework to rise into leadership with clarity, calm, and confidence.

Because sustainable success isn’t about doing more.

It’s about leading smarter.

Learn more and register here.