Time is the most limited commodity that any successful person have & time management is one of the most sought after skill for majority of us. Urgent & Important are the two major parameters used in prioritizing where to focus our resources on.
Eisenhower matrix is ever-green cheat sheet for any one looking to help prioritize their day. Biggest issue we struggle with is “urgent” taking priority over “important”.
If you give some one two tasks with following
– Task A is urgent
– Task B is important
99% of the times, they will go with the urgent one. There could be multiple reasons for this behaviors, but following two are the most common one.
– Urgency creates emergency giving you the adrenaline rush for the day
– It is easy to get motivated while accomplishing a task that is time driven because it could be quantified
The most urgent decisions are rarely the most important ones.
– Dwight D Eisenhower
However, while focusing on urgent task, we oversee important tasks requiring our attention. It could be a business goal as well as personal goal. Such as joining a gym, going on a vacation, spending time with your family, calling an old friend or be by yourself. Even in business, we mightn’t have updated our website or done a SWOT analysis or the most important one – sitting down with the team over dinner.
So next time, there is a choice between Urgency or importance, chose wisely!