Feeling Stuck? Here’s How to Prioritize Your Business Tasks (Without the Overwhelm)

Too many tasks, not enough progress? You’re not alone.

If your brain feels like a browser with 47 tabs open—half of them frozen—you might be wondering how to prioritize your business tasks when everything feels urgent and important.

This post is your permission slip to stop spinning and start sorting.

Let’s get some clarity back, shall we?

Why You Feel Stuck

The problem usually isn’t that you’re lazy or bad at time management. It’s that your brain is doing what it’s wired to do: protect you from failure, avoid discomfort, and try to remember everything at once.

But that mental juggling act takes a toll. Decision fatigue kicks in. You stop trusting your to-do list. You avoid the important stuff because the urgent stuff is shouting.

Sound familiar?

Let’s fix that.

Your Calm, Sassy System: The 4-Box Filter (Reimagined)

You may have heard of the Eisenhower Matrix—a tool that helps you sort tasks by urgency and importance.

This simple framework has been used by leaders for decades—including, yes, President Dwight D. Eisenhower himself—to cut through chaos and make confident decisions under pressure. And it still works today because it helps your brain see what matters, instead of trying to feel your way through the fog.

But when you’re overwhelmed, even categorizing can feel like one more decision you’re not ready to make. So we’ve made it simpler and lighter to use in real life.

This is a 4-step approach that walks you gently from mental clutter to clear action—with no perfection required:

1. Brain dump what’s on your mind

2. Sift business tasks and highlight heavy tasks to the top

3. Move each of those tasks onto the matrix, one at a time

4. Identify what’s urgent and important—and act with clarity

It’s a little bit planning, a little bit therapy, and a whole lot of relief.

What You Need

We made you a free tool called The BFD Detector (Big Freaking Deal Detector). It's a Google Slides template designed to help you unload your brain, spot your Big Freaking Deals, and sort your priorities with way less stress.

You can also get hands on and tactile. If you want to roll old school, you'll need:

• A pad of regular sized sticky notes

• An open wall or table

• A Sharpie

• Painters Tape

Step One: Brain Dump Everything (Seriously, Everything)

Set a timer and take 10 minutes to do a full mental unload.

Write down everything that’s bouncing around in your brain—business tasks, personal tasks, all of it. Don’t organize. Don’t judge. Just capture.

Brain Dump on Stickies

Brain Dump on BFD Sorter

Step Two: Sort Them

Look at your mass of stickies. You’re going to set aside anything that is:

• a business task

• a heavy task (the things weighing on you mentally or emotionally)

Congrats! You just found your BFDs (Big Freaking Deals). You’re going to take a closer look at these in the next step. Everything else can go in a pile. You're done with those.

Move your BFD Stack onto Step Three.

Step Three: Drag and Drop—No Overthinking Required

Grab your painters tape and make a 2' x 2' plus sign on your surface. Use fresh sticky notes (maybe in another color if you're feeling sassy) to label the ends of your plus sign, like so:

• Top: Important

• Bottom: Not Important

• Right: Urgent

• Left: Not Urgent

Make your own BFD Detector, like so:

Using the BFD Detector, move each task one at a time onto the 4-quadrant grid. Start in the middle and then:

• Move it up or down → based on how important it is to your business

• Then move it left or right → based on how urgent it feels

Once all the tasks are placed, it will look something like this:

Step Four: Make Your Selections

Let's take a look at how each zone of the grid should be handled. Time to take action!

BFD Sorter Decoder

Now that you’ve mapped it all out:

1. Find your 🔥 Put Out the Fire tasks

2. Choose 1 to tackle today

3. Pick 2 more for the rest of the week

Ignore everything else for now. This is about progress, not perfection. If you do want to take the next step: delegate everything in the Hand It Off section right now and schedule 2 hours of focus time next week to tackle the Schedule It with Intention section.

And if one of your heavy personal tasks landed in “Hand It Off” or “Clear It Out,” don’t be afraid to take action. Brainpower is brainpower—business and life aren’t always separate.

What If You Don’t Know What Matters Yet?

If you’re struggling to figure out what counts as “important,” it might be time to zoom out and look at your business goals. The best way to do that?

Join us at the next Quarterly Workshop—a space to reset your vision, clarify your priorities, and set your direction for the next 90 days.

Want to Stay Out of Triage Mode?

This kind of mental unload is life-saving in a pinch. But wouldn’t it be nice to stay out of triage mode in the first place?

That’s exactly what ActionPlanner is for. It’s a weekly, one-hour planning session designed for solopreneurs like you who want to:

• Review the week with intention

• Choose high-leverage goals

• Map out a calm, focused plan

💬 Your first session is free—and if you send me a message, I’ll give you a whole month to try it, completely on me. That’s how much I believe in the power of consistency.

You’re Not Behind. You’re Just Ready for a Better Way.

If you’re feeling stuck, this is your nudge to pause, unload your mental clutter, and get honest about what really moves the needle.

You don’t need a new planner. You need a clear head, a calm system, and a little self-trust.

Start with the BFD Detector. Choose what matters. Let the rest wait.