Urgent vs. Important by Jim Stovall
Success in our personal and professional lives is not just a matter of doing things right but also doing the right things. It is very easy to get caught up in activity as opposed to engaging in productivity. There are so many thoughts, ideas, messages, and tasks competing for our attention that we must have a system to filter out the noise and focus on the true path to our destiny.
My late, great friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen Covey, in his landmark book First Things First, introduced people around the world to his four-quadrant diagram. As often is the case with learned and prolific people, Dr. Covey’s wisdom captured and built upon the teaching of a proven leader. Dwight David Eisenhower is unique among U.S. presidents and world leaders in that the pinnacle of this power and productivity may not have been his presidency but, instead, may have been when he was General of the Allied Forces during World War II. General Eisenhower’s command required him to be precise, productive, and prolific at all times. The D-Day invasion probably required more management, oversight, and leadership than any project in recorded history.
General Eisenhower divided all information and actions into the categories of “important” and “urgent” in a system that has become known as the Eisenhower Box. In this system, combining these two elements gives us four possible categories. First, there are the items that are both important and urgent. These are tasks that demand our immediate attention, and the consequences will greatly affect our outcome. Ideally, with the exception of true emergencies, we should deal with important items before they become urgent. It is important to keep gas in our car, but it is not urgent to fill the tank unless we put it off until we are in the danger zone.
Second are the items that are important but not urgent. This category is where we should ideally focus the majority of our time, effort, and energy. President Eisenhower said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” Having an estate plan for your family including a will and life insurance, or reviewing long-term goals and objectives within your professional life, or maintaining and cultivating great relationships with friends, colleagues, and loved ones are all vitally important to our success, but we should never allow these activities to become urgent.
Third are the items that are urgent but not important. This category includes activities that are relatively insignificant which may be expiring quickly. For example, an offer or a coupon to save an insignificant amount of money on something you may not want or need is certainly not important, but if you’re not careful, you may think it’s urgent if you continue to focus on the fact that it expires at the end of the day today.
Fourth among Dr. Covey’s quadrants or President Eisenhower’s box are the items that are not important and not urgent. You may wonder why two of the greatest thinkers of the last century would even include this category. They understood that more time is wasted and procrastination justified by junk, clutter, and time wasters. Here in the 21st century, we are bombarded with unimportant, non-urgent things that threaten to flood the landscape of our minds. In order to succeed, we must identify and eliminate these items immediately. Only when we look through the lens of productivity using a system such as Dr. Covey’s quadrants or President Eisenhower’s box, can we focus our effort and energy on the most vital things that will move us toward our goals, dreams, and legacy.
As you go through your day today, begin to control your activities through your own productivity system.
Today’s the day!
Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network, a columnist, a motivational speaker, as well as a published author of many books. His latest book, co-authored with Don Green of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, is The Gift of Giving: Living Your Legacy. It is available to purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Book Company, Google Play, Apple Books, and other fine retailers. Follow Jim on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). And be sure to sign up to receive free samples of Jim Stovall’s books and audiobooks from Sound Wisdom!