From Overload to Action: Amazon Senior Manager's Guide to Getting Things Done

I am a Senior Manager at Amazon, a company renowned for its demanding work culture, where I’ve built my career over the past 13 years. At home, I juggle life with three kids aged 4 to 11. We live in Luxembourg, navigating daily life in French, German, and Luxembourgish—none of which are my native language. It’s safe to say my cognitive load is consistently at full capacity.

Some days, the sheer volume of responsibilities feels overwhelming. Early in my career at Amazon, a senior leader shared advice that has stuck with me. He likened his work to spinning plates—starting with one, then adding more, ensuring each keeps its momentum. Over the years, I’ve adopted this mental model and discovered some valuable insights:

#1: One cannot jump from spinning 5 plates to 15 overnight — it’s a gradual process (that’s why many new hires find Amazon overwhelming).

#2: Everyone has a personal limit; beyond it, the plates start to fall. Some can do more, some less, but we are all human.

#3: Once you have mastered spinning 15 plates, going back to 5 feels mundane and unchallenging.

#4: As a manager I need to be able to estimate my teams’ capacity to spin and ensure that they are stretching out of their comfort zone just a little bit. Too much stretch and they are heading to burnout, not enough – they are getting bored.

#5: The real trick is not about spinning the most plates. The real trick is figuring, under pressure, which ones matter most and ensuring they never stop.

On days when the universe keeps throwing more plates my way, I hit pause and shift into planning mode. I’m not talking about emergencies—like an SVP escalation or a call from school about a sick child. In those cases, everything else can drop (and apologies can follow later). I’m referring to those days when my to-do list grows faster than I can check items off.

First, I write down every task weighing on my mind. Once on paper, the list often looks shorter and more manageable. Next, I review my top five weekly priorities (a practice I will cover in a future post) and mark any new tasks that align with them. While it’s tempting to jump straight into action, there’s an essential step before that.

I apply the Eliminate/Delay/Delegate filter to all new tasks.

Eliminate: Does this task even belong on my team’s plate? If someone else is better equipped to handle it, I redirect it. If it doesn’t align with my team’s charter or priorities, I say no (mastering the art of saying “no” deserves its own post). I also keep a “Not now” list—a graveyard for tasks destined for elimination. Writing them down helps keep them from nagging me. Take, for example, sorting through and donating my kids’ old toys. It’s been sitting on that list for a while. Perhaps when my kids have kids, I’ll simply hand them the boxes and let it be their problem!

Delay: Strategic delay is a powerful tool. Is there a hot email thread? Sometimes it’s best to let it play out and add a decisive point at the end. Is the task vague because the requester hasn’t put in the effort to clarify? If they didn’t put the effort in, why should I? If the task truly matters, people will follow up and provide more clarity.

Delegate: Can someone else on my team (or in my family) handle this? Will it align with their top priorities, offer a learning opportunity, or open doors? Are they already familiar with the topic and able to ramp up quickly? Even seasoned leaders often under-utilize delegation (a lesson I learned in a prior epiphany).

Applying this filter often removes 2-3 tasks from my list immediately.

After this I look at my original to-do list for the day.

Dave Clark, Amazon’s former CEO, once shared his prioritization framework: first he tackles tasks that could get him fired, followed by those that could get him promoted. I start by checking if anything on my list falls into the “get fired” category. Not likely since these red-alarm items usually get done before making it to a written list.

Next, I turn to my top five priorities—the “get promoted” list— by combining tasks from my old and new lists. Often, related tasks can be grouped together. For example, drafting a job requisition, providing feedback on a candidate, and making a hiring decision all fall within the same mental space and naturally align. If a task from my old list is equally important and distinct, I write it down on the new list again.

The key is to focus on the top five and ignore everything else. I schedule calendar blocks in advance specifically to work on the top five priorities. Once I’ve identified the tasks within my top five, I further narrow them down, double-circling the 2-3 tasks I must complete today. Occasionally, a quick and urgent task outside the top five gets a double circle, too.

Finally, I move into action, using my next calendar block to “spin the first plate.”

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