As your career progresses, the most important skill is prioritization. The ability to evaluate what needs your attention right now. And what can wait.

Especially if you work at a startup where you hear amazing ideas every single day. There isn't enough time in the day to execute everything.

Working harder or longer isn't the answer. Doing everything is a distraction from the most impactful work.

Prioritization is key 🔑

If you're looking for a system to get started - I am a huge fan of the ICE framework made popular by Sean Ellis many years ago. It’s dead simple and extremely helpful.

Each idea get’s evaluated by the framework below.

I = potential impact. Is the initiative likely to generate a big impact vs a neat idea that might not move the needle much?

C = your confidence the idea will work. Do you have some background information that makes you believe the initiative will be successful, or is this a guess?

E = ease of implementation. Is this a small initiative you can execute quickly or a big project that requires more resources?

I keep a backlog of growth ideas in GSheets (and encourage clients to do the same) and rank them on a 1-5 scale for ICE. Once a month, I revisit the rankings and re-prioritize my roadmap.