ITID Priority List
Protect important work from the daily flood of urgent demands
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 93%
The ITID Priority List captures Important Things I'm Not Doing Yet: consequential work that remains deferred because something more urgent or valuable currently takes precedence. Instead of pretending every high-priority task can be completed immediately, the operator maintains a conscious inventory of important omissions. That inventory reduces anxiety, preserves strategic obligations, and supports rapid replanning when new information changes the day. The mechanism combines a durable backlog with continual triage: record important work, identify immediate fires, compare competing priorities, and deliberately select what will not happen today. The framework is especially useful in early-stage companies, where the correct schedule can change within hours and leaders must repeatedly absorb switching costs without losing sight of longer-term needs.
Origin
Ben Gilbert attributes the term ITID—Important Things I'm Not Doing Yet—to Seattle founder and investor T.A. McCann while describing the prioritization demands of running Taunt.
Core principles
- 01Important and urgent are different dimensions
- 02Some high-priority work cannot be completed today
- 03New information should change the plan
- 04Unrecorded obligations are easily forgotten
How to run it
- 1
Capture Important Omissions
Write down every important responsibility that is currently being deferred. Include work that lacks an immediate deadline but would create meaningful consequences if neglected.
Pro tip Phrase each item as a concrete outcome rather than a vague concern.
Watch out Do not use the list as a dumping ground for low-value ideas.
- 2
Identify Immediate Fires
Mark obligations that genuinely must be addressed today or within the current hour. Distinguish real deadlines and dependencies from demands that merely feel urgent.
Pro tip Ask what breaks, blocks, or materially worsens if the task waits.
Watch out Treating every request as a fire makes prioritization impossible.
- 3
Rank Competing Value
Compare the remaining work by impact, urgency, and dependency. Select the small number of items that deserve current attention.
Pro tip Consider whether completing one item will unblock several people or decisions.
Watch out Do not rank solely by who asked most recently.
- 4
Choose the Deliberate Deferrals
Explicitly acknowledge which important tasks will not happen today. Keep them visible rather than allowing them to vanish from attention.
Pro tip Record a review date or trigger for each major deferral.
Watch out A deferred priority without a review mechanism can become silent abandonment.
- 5
Reprioritize on New Information
Reopen the plan whenever circumstances materially change. Accept that the schedule designed at the start of the day may no longer be correct.
Pro tip Preserve focus unless the new information changes impact, urgency, or dependencies.
Watch out Constantly switching for trivial updates creates costly CPU thrash.
In the wild
A startup CEO plans to review hiring candidates and refine next quarter's strategy. A production integration unexpectedly blocks the day's customer launch. The CEO records the strategic work on the ITID list, resolves the launch dependency, and assigns a specific review point for the deferred tasks rather than pretending everything can still fit.
→ The launch proceeds without allowing important hiring and strategy work to disappear.
A manager knows that writing a role scorecard is strategically important, but a customer escalation and payroll deadline take precedence. The scorecard remains on the conscious ITID list with a Friday review trigger, making the delay deliberate and recoverable.
→ Urgent obligations are handled while the strategic hire remains visible.
Common mistakes
Confusing Visibility with Progress
Writing an item down does not advance it. The list must feed concrete priority decisions and review triggers.
Replanning for Every Interruption
Not every new message changes the correct priority order. Replan only when new information materially affects impact, urgency, or dependencies.
Hiding Avoidance as Deferral
Repeatedly postponing the same uncomfortable task may indicate avoidance rather than sound prioritization. Escalate or schedule it explicitly.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for founders, executives, and operators managing more important work than can fit into one day.
Not ideal for
It is unnecessary for predictable workloads with few competing priorities or interruptions.
From the transcript
“calls this ITID Important Things I'm not doing yet.”
“whatever you looked at and thought your day was going to be at the beginning of the day may actually not be the correct prioritization…”
“the biggest thing is is really um being able to quickly adapt and reprioritize on the fly.”
From the episode
2017 Holiday Special