How to Prioritize Tasks When You Have 100 Things to Do (A Simple System)

Grow Millions
Nov 29, 2025
5 min read

Woman stressed, holding "urgent" sticky note, points at task list on whiteboard. Papers and notebooks on desk, bright room with window.

The "Morning Overwhelm" Problem

The alarm goes off. You grab your coffee, sit at your desk, and open your to-do list.

And then you freeze.

There are 50 items staring back at you. A massive proposal is due next week. You need to hire a new assistant. A client is asking for an "urgent" update. Your inbox has 300 unread emails.

Your heart rate speeds up. A wave of paralysis washes over you. Where do you even begin?

Instead of tackling the big, scary project, you open your email. You delete some spam. You reply to a few quick questions. You feel busy. You feel productive for a moment.

But three hours later, the 50 things are still on your list, and the big, scary projects remain untouched.

This is "Morning Overwhelm." It’s a state of paralysis caused by having too much to do and no clear starting point. The problem isn't a lack of time; it's a lack of focus. You need a reliable system for knowing how to prioritize tasks.

Here is a simple, ruthless method to cut through the noise, ignore the busywork, and identify the single most important thing you need to do today.

The Trap of "Busy" vs. "Productive"

The biggest mistake founders make when facing a long to-do list is confusing "being busy" with "being productive."

Being Busy: Clearing your inbox, attending low-value meetings, updating your website's colors, organizing your digital files. This feels like work, but it doesn't move the needle on your business goals.
Being Productive: Working on the proposal that will win you a major client, creating the marketing strategy for your next launch, developing a new product feature. This work is hard, requires deep focus, and is often uncomfortable.

When you are overwhelmed, your brain naturally gravitates towards the easy, busy work. It’s a defense mechanism against the anxiety of the big tasks. Learning how to prioritize tasks means training your brain to ignore the easy work and attack the hard work first.

The 3-Step System: From 100 Tasks to Just One

To cure Morning Overwhelm, you need to stop trying to do everything. You need to find the one thing that makes everything else easier or unnecessary.

This system will help you do that.

Step 1: The "Brain Dump" (Get It Out of Your Head)

The first step to getting organized is to stop trying to hold everything in your memory. Your brain is for having ideas, not holding them.

Take a piece of paper or open a blank document. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Write down every single thing you need to do, from "finish the Q4 strategy doc" to "buy coffee for the office."

Don't judge or organize at this stage. Just dump it all out. You will likely feel a temporary spike in anxiety as you see the list grow, but don't worry—this is just the raw material we are going to process.

Step 2: The Eisenhower Matrix (Filter the Noise)

Now that you have your master list, you need a filter. The best tool for this is the Eisenhower Matrix, a simple 2x2 grid that helps you categorize tasks by urgency and importance.

As James Clear explains in his excellent guide, this matrix forces you to distinguish between tasks that are truly critical and those that just feel urgent.

Draw a box with four quadrants:

Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important (Do First). These are crises, deadlines, and problems that need immediate attention. (e.g., "Site is down," "Proposal due tomorrow").
Quadrant 2: Not Urgent but Important (Schedule). This is the "zone of growth." These tasks are high-value but have no immediate deadline. This is where you should spend most of your time. (e.g., "Strategic planning," "Networking," "Learning a new skill").
Quadrant 3: Urgent but Not Important (Delegate). These are interruptions, most emails, and other people's priorities. They feel urgent but don't contribute to your long-term goals.
Quadrant 4: Not Urgent and Not Important (Eliminate). These are distractions. (e.g., "Mindless social media scrolling," "Organizing old files").

Take your brain dump list and place each item into one of these four boxes. Be ruthless. Most tasks will end up in quadrants 3 and 4.

Step 3: The "One Thing" Rule (Find Your Lead Domino)

You have now filtered your list. Your focus should be entirely on Quadrant 1 and, more importantly, Quadrant 2.

Look at the tasks in those two boxes. Ask yourself this question, popularized by author Gary Keller:

"What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

This question forces you to identify the "lead domino."

If your goal is to get 10 new clients, your "one thing" might be to finish your new sales deck.
If your goal is to hire an assistant, your "one thing" might be to write the job description.

Once you identify that one task, circle it. That is your only real priority for the day. Everything else is secondary.

The Secret to Success: "Eat That Frog"

There is a famous quote often attributed to Mark Twain: "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."

Your "one thing" is your frog. It's the big, ugly, scary task that you most want to avoid.

The key to learning how to prioritize tasks effectively is to commit to "eating the frog" first thing in the morning before you open your email, check Slack, or attend any meetings.

Block out the first two hours of your day on your calendar. Call it "Deep Work" or "Frog Time." Treat this time as sacred. Turn off notifications, close extra tabs, and focus entirely on your one big task.

Even if you don't finish it, you will have made significant progress on the most important thing. This creates a massive sense of accomplishment that carries you through the rest of the day.

Conclusion: Focus Is a Muscle

Learning how to prioritize tasks is not a one-time event; it's a daily practice. It's a muscle you build over time.

At Growmillions.in, we believe that focus is the ultimate superpower for any entrepreneur. You can't do everything, but you can do the right thing.

The next time you feel the paralyzing grip of "Morning Overwhelm," stop. Don't open your email. Don't do the busy work.

Do a brain dump. Filter your list. Find your one thing. And then, eat that frog.