Steve Jobs talked about being able to discern signals versus noise, with signals being the 3-5 mission critical things you need to get done, and noise being all the low level distractions which take your focus away from the signal.  I think this is more true than ever.

In the beginning of my career, I thought I had to do everything….attend every meeting, respond to every email….and as the work grew, I was exhausted trying to keep up. Even worse, I felt like I was getting nothing done. It felt like everything mattered.

Now, many years later, I am hyper focused on the 3 critical things: critical defined as those goals which will fundamentally change where we end up. With that in mind, I look at everything on my plate: the meetings, the assignments. If it doesn’t move the ball forward on those 3 critical things, I let it go.  So some ways to do this:

1. Have a conversation with your manager to make sure you got the priorities right. You don’t want to assume something’s important when it’s not.
2. Assess what you need to do differently or where you need to fill the holes: whenever I have an assignment, I look at what exists, but more importantly what’s missing.  If there are decisions stalling, chances are there’s no forum to get to resolution. Create one. Useless meetings? Try to cancel, send a proxy.
3. Say no. You can’t sign up for everything. But you’re the only person who can manage what’s on your plate…people will keep piling on…especially if you’re a good performer. If your boss is piling on, I find it helpful to say “this is everything I’m working on right now. What should I deprioritize in order to get this (new thing) done?”

BTW, I think this is true in life as well. If your goal is to be financially independent, you need to ignore everything that entices you away from that goal. If you stay focused on the signal, and edit out the noise, you have a better chance of getting where you want to be…