A method, system and computer program product for handling an overwhelming amount of messages in an activity stream. Messages in an activity stream, such as an activity stream of a social networking system, of a user are monitored. Those monitored messages that contain an actionable item or event are identified. The messages that contain an actionable item or event are prioritized in a list based on one or more of the following factors: the deadline, the relationship of the sender of the message to the user, the user's desired social relationship with the sender of the message and the event schedule. The prioritized list is then displayed to the user. In this manner, the user will be able to handle the overwhelming amount of messages in an activity stream by determining which posts with an actionable item or event to respond prior to other posts in the user's activity stream.