DO THIS FIRST
Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines! They can creep up on us, and before we know it, the work that we thought had plenty of time has now become a last-minute rush to the finish line. But is everything that we consider urgent truly important? And are we spending too much time on tasks that are not impactful on our lives?
As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” In other words, we may be puzzling the urgent with the important, and this can leave us feeling depleted of energy at the end of the day without much significant work accomplished.
Urgent tasks are usually those with immediate or past deadlines, but that doesn’t mean they are always crucial. Sometimes we delay doing a task, and it becomes urgent when it could have been completed much earlier without much effort. On the other hand, important tasks can have a significant impact on our lives but may not have an imminent deadline
Urgent tasks are mostly tasks that have an immediate deadline or a deadline that has passed. These critical tasks don’t need to be time-consuming or effort-intensive.
It is also not necessary that these tasks will have a significant impact on your life ‘ “in fact, they may be very trivial or silly. Things often become urgent, or an urgent situation is created when a person knows that something has to be accomplished but keeps delaying it.
For instance, acknowledging the receipt of an email or submitting a not-so-important report ‘is “very trivial but if ignored can become an urgent task.”
Important tasks, on the other hand, need not have a deadline looming over the person. They are important because of the impact that they can have on a person’s life. Again, these need not be time-consuming or effort-intensive and may not require you to do it immediately. For instance, planning your education or career since your school days ‘ ” is not something you need to execute right now but will help you chart your direction
Many individuals who have been in leadership and management positions for decades are still left baffled when it comes to identifying what is urgent and what is important. Understanding the difference between urgent and important can significantly impact the quality and productivity of both your personal and professional life.
URGENT Tasks will be governed by
Crisis
Emergency
Deadlines
We will not be able to eliminate all the urgent tasks in life, but if we plan and execute and stay alert, we can reduce urgent tasks by nearly 78%, says a recent study conducted by HBR
Some Activities that will help you to reduce urgent tasks and make you more productive
Plan and block your calendar for important dates
Creating a budget plan
Creating a savings investment plan
Scheduling your day
Delegating Maintenance to experts
Set Reminders in advance for statutory compliance
Define responsibilities and assign accountability
Weekly Planning
Journaling
