Most people get confused between the urgent and important tasks. Often people at managerial level surrender to this confusion professionally as well as personally. It’s really important to understand the difference between being urgent and being important. This can make a significant influence on the quality and productivity of one’s personal as well as professional life.
There is a very fine line between your urgent and important tasks. Urgent tasks are those that have a direct deadline. It is not compulsory that these tasks must be time consuming or effort requiring, but they are surely time-sensitive. For instance, an urgent task may be a phone call, an email which needs response, any situation which requires quick decisive response.
Important tasks, on the other hand, do not have deadlines, but they need to be done because of the influence they have on person’s life, either personal or professional. They may not be time taking or effort requiring tasks and may not need to be done immediately. They pay to long-term missions and goals. For instance, an important task may be a promotional presentation you like to make; any book you want to write in your life; or any business you want to set up.
If you want to be successfully done with your work, you need to prioritize your tasks by level of their urgency and importance. Often something unimportant drives your attention away from what you are doing just because of urgency of that task. Therefore it’s necessary to know the importance of task to prioritize what needs to done and in what order. It is also a good approach to build urgency for important tasks as well, to help re-position the priorities and maintain concentration on in-hand tasks.
Decision Matrix to Categorize Tasks:
Former President of United States of America, Dwight Eisenhower, developed a decision matrix having four boxes and divided tasks into four categories:
- Top-left box, Urgent and Important, are tasks which are time-sensitive and have strict deadlines; such as crisis, problems or deadlines. For instance, principle’s call to meet you to discuss your child’s behavior; certain emails like job offers which require quick response; or any term assignment which have a deadline.
- Top-right box, Not-Urgent but Important, are tasks that are not time-sensitive but you have to do which will help you achieve your certain goals; such as long-term projects planning, recreation and relationships. For instance, learning a new skill; car and home maintenance; creating a budget and saving plans.
- Bottom-left, Urgent but Not-Important, are tasks that need to done now but have no significant impact on achieving your goals; such as interruptions, meetings, and activities. For instance, phone calls; colleague on your desk asking for some favor; or most emails that require just your acknowledgment.
- Bottom-right, Not-Urgent and Not-Important, are simply distractions that divert your attention from your urgent and important tasks; such as pleasant activities, trivial tasks, and time wasters. For instance, watching TV; scrolling through social media; or shopping sprees.
“What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Using this decision-matrix, you can decide which of your tasks require more of your focus and efforts.
Conclusion:
Usually, you perceive a task as important through the feeling of reacting right away. When something unpredictable pops up, let it sit aside and keep on doing what you are doing until you get a break. This is the best way to deal with it. You can lower your stress level by distinguishing more between which task is important and which task is purely urgent.
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