Stop Answering Emails: Prioritizing Your Most Important Work in Rural Community College Leadership

Even though you might not be able to read it, here's this week's postcard of most important tasks.

I’m currently listening to Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown for the third time. Why a third time? Because while I know the principles by heart, it’s an area I continue to struggle with. The main theme of the book—to commit to doing only the most important work—is a profound truth that is constantly at war with reality. We are all bombarded daily with a massive influx of urgent tasks, requests, meetings, and expectations, yet not all of them are, in fact, the most important work.

The noise of the immediate threatens to drown out the quiet clarity of the essential. Leaders, especially in rural community colleges, often feel the pressure to be constantly available, but if you spend all your time reacting, you’ll never have time to lead.

The Power of One Essential Task

This struggle reminds me of the classic guidance I used to listen to on CDs from the Nightingale-Conant organization, featuring the great Earl Nightingale. He once recounted a consulting opportunity where a CEO was feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed by the sheer volume of his work.

Nightingale’s simple, yet radical, advice to the CEO was this: Write down the five most important things you need to accomplish. Then, spend all your time doing only the first item before you even look at the other four. He told the CEO to ignore all other distractions—don't open messages, don't take meetings, don't respond to anything—until the single most important task was complete. The discipline required for this is immense, but the results are transformative. By dedicating focused, uninterrupted time to the one thing that will generate the most momentum, you ensure your most essential goals move forward.

My Notecard Strategy: Lead, Don't React

Bringing this idea into my own life, I’ve developed a discipline that, when I’m at my best, is non-negotiable: I write down my three to five most important tasks for the day BEFORE I open my Outlook or TEAMs app.

Why this seemingly simple rule? Because the moment those applications are open, a cascade of requests begins, and I will have more than enough "urgent" tasks just to respond to what is coming to me from others. The unwritten, essential tasks immediately disappear beneath the tide of notifications.

My process involves a quick, mindful scan of my communication apps to make sure there are no truly critical, urgent requests that need an immediate response. Once I confirm there aren't bats in the building, I get to work on my most important list. The truth is, about 90% of the requests sent to me from others aren't genuinely urgent for me to respond to immediately. Most people benefit from a few hours of patience and a thorough, thoughtful response, rather than an instant, rushed reply.

I think about this "notecard" of priorities before I even leave for the office in the morning, and then I physically write it down as soon as I sit at my desk. This act of writing shifts my brain into problem-solving mode for the critical work, rather than reactive-answering mode for everyone else’s work.

Prioritizing the Work No One Asks For

The tasks on my notecard this week are the kind that never appear as an email request from someone else, and that's precisely why they must be prioritized. My list includes:

• Getting high-level overview messages out to a few different groups about important, strategic information they need to be aware of.

• Dedicating uninterrupted time to work on the development of our new onboarding platform.

• Digging into the budget figures as we begin discussions for the next fiscal year.

  
  

These are the strategic, forward-looking tasks that define the future of the college. They will not get done unless I, the leader, intentionally ring-fence the time for them. If I wait for someone to send me a meeting invitation to work on my priorities, I will wait forever.

If you struggle with the same challenge, I encourage you to adopt a similar "notecard" or "first hour" strategy. Shut out the noise, define what is essential for your leadership, and dedicate your best time and energy to it.

What is Your Essential Strategy?

We are all striving to be better leaders by focusing on the essential. What do you do to help prioritize the most important things you need to do over all the urgent requests you receive?