When Everything Feels Important, Try This

Ever feel stuck picking what to work on next? Like your brain’s pulling you in 10 directions at once? This week, I’m sharing a simple tool I turn to whenever things get noisy—it helps me sort through the mess and pick what actually matters right now. Just a simple way to cut through the noise and move forward.

Clarity?

While I’ve gotten better about avoiding overwhelm or taking on too many projects over time, there’s still days when I feel like everything needs to happen at once. Big projects, small ideas, random to-dos, you name it.

When that happens, it's easy to either freeze or jump into the wrong thing just to feel productive. That’s why I started using the Focus Finder to score and sort out my focus.

How I Actually Do It

Here’s how I use the Focus Finder - which you can grab here by clicking and making a copy (Google Docs):

1. I make a quick list of projects, ideas, or goals I’ve been thinking about. Nothing fancy—just bullet points.

2. Then I score each one on a scale of 1 to 5 based on:

   • How excited I am about it?

   • The short-term return (Will this help in the next few weeks?)

   • The long-term return (Will this help in the next year or more?)

These scores aren’t perfect—they’re gut checks. But they help me stop guessing and start seeing what really matters.

The nice part? The spreadsheet I use adds extra weight to higher scores. So if I give something a 5, it stands out way more than a 3. That helps the truly valuable stuff rise to the top.

Once I’ve done that, I pick 1–2 things to focus on next. It gives me direction without being rigid.

I’ll often change the short- and long-term timeframes based on what’s going on—sometimes it’s one week and six months, sometimes longer. You can make this your own.

It’s just a way to turn vague ideas into real priorities—based on how you actually think and feel. Give it a shot.

Extra Extra

• Bonus: The Eisenhower matrix can also be a good day to day method for finding your focus.

One quick question 👋

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P.S. Looking for resources to improve your productivity? Check out the tools I use right here.