I love a good to-do list with little boxes I can place check marks in once a task is finished. It’s so satisfying! I’ve learned that prioritizing wellness for business leaders often doesn’t make it onto those lists.

But this morning, I ran aground of a task that wasn’t on my list at all. It was blocking me from making decisions and preventing me from completing other tasks. This created a low-level hum of anxiety in my brain while it remained unaccounted for.

And then I remembered the stories of two women I work with who have experienced this exact same thing, and what we did about it.

The first woman had tasks related to her wellbeing: exercise, sleep, doctor’s appointments, and space to recharge. She had these items on her list, but they kept getting pushed aside by the fires burning all around her. And while the wellness tasks went undone, she was losing the very energy she needed to put those fires out.

We moved wellness to her #1 Goal for the year. Those actions went first on her list, and everything else followed. Research backs this up.
A study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that employees who prioritized recovery activities reported significantly higher energy levels and were more effective at work. Putting yourself first isn’t indulgent. It’s strategic.

The second woman had three goals for her year: growing her business, caring for her parents, and taking care of her health. But every time a task related to her parents interrupted her business work, she became frustrated and scattered.

In her case, we re-prioritized her goals, making caring for her parents #1 and aligning the other actions beneath it. Whenever frustration crept in, she came back to that #1 goal, and the new perspective gave her tasks meaning.
Research in goal-setting theory, going back to the foundational work of Locke and Latham, consistently shows that when our actions are clearly connected to our most important goals, we experience less cognitive strain and greater motivation — even when the tasks are hard.

So back to me this morning. I realized that the outcome of my big, important, missing task needed to become a GOAL. And the tasks connected to it needed to move to the top of my list to get me back to smooth sailing.

Prioritizing wellness for business leaders often becomes that invisible task that never makes it to the top of the list.
How about you? Do you have something important but incomplete, quietly keeping you from moving forward? Is there a task so significant that its absence is creating drag on everything else?

Here’s a simple reframe: What if that task isn’t just something to do — what if it’s a goal that deserves the top spot on your list?
When you give it that weight, the tasks beneath it fall into place, and you’ll find the focus and energy you’ve been looking for.

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