Two Simple Questions to Ask Before Doing Anything

Juggling priorities and reconnecting to what really matters.

Most of us have, at some point, found ourselves in the position of staring down our to-do lists, gearing up to check off the items one-by-one.

Or looking at a shared screen of our company’s list of 17 top priorities for the year, talking through what we will do, and by when.

Before we get to this place, there are two things we should be asking:

• What is our stake in the ground?

  1. In other words, why are we doing what we are doing?

  2. What really matters?

  3. What is important about this?

• What are our desired outcomes?

  • What do we hope to accomplish because of this?

  • What will be different on the other side?

  • What will success look like?

We should ask these things before we make our to-do list.

We should ask these things before we determine our list of priorities for the year.

And we should ask these things before we schedule a meeting or start sketching out the minute-by-minute agenda for our upcoming offsite.

A to-do list (or an agenda) is not a strategy.

When we skip these conversations, it is easy to find ourselves busy, but not necessarily aligned.

We can spend our time discussing tasks, timelines, agendas, and action items without first establishing what matters most and what we hope to accomplish.

A clear stake in the ground provides direction. Clear desired outcomes provide a destination.

Once we know why we are doing the work and what success looks like, determining what to do—and by when—becomes much easier.