I woke up Monday morning in Northern California with a call from my sister saying wildfires were threatening. Her neighbor knocked on her door and said “Be prepared to evacuate.” Neither of us realized that fires were so close, and overnight the fire grew five times in size from the high winds. In a moment of crisis where people are evacuating and losing their homes, I think about prioritization.

All week I’ve been asking myself what I would take if I had to pack a bag and leave my home being threatened by a natural disaster. A real life version of George Clooney’s monologue from Up in the AIr. I read stories of folks fleeing the fires who had no time to even put on shoes. Other people had time to race around the house and take a few things. In reflection I ask myself “what isn’t replaceable?” Almost everything can be replaced with some amount of time and money. Grab your family, your pets, key documents, the laptop, chargers and money. Get out.

The crisis puts the question of priority into immediate effect. Do the most important things right now. This exercise is something we often don’t do in our daily lives at work. We consider that we always have tomorrow. In our jobs we often see our tenure in our position as enabling us to get to something eventually. The cost of doing something unimportant today is less because we have tomorrow to catch up.

In the same way you might ask yourself “what can I absolutely not replace?” we can ask ourselves “what work can only I do?” There are many things you can spend your time on. As an executive your time becomes more and more constrained. Ask yourself if you are doing work you can delegate. Ask if there is an opportunity to train someone else to do some of your role.

Have you prioritized work that someone else can do over work only you can do? A professional crisis can lead you to focus on the most important things. It does not have to take a crisis. We can examine our priorities and spend our time making the biggest impact. Don’t wait for a professional crisis to take stock of where you should spend your time.

My sister was able to evacuate south to our hotel, and together went further south away from the smoke and ash. We spent Monday monitoring the situation of friends who were losing their homes. We were safe and together.