Urgent and Important!

How many of you have been living lately in the quadrant of Urgent and Important?

If you are, and sometimes life is like that..let’s use this thread as a support based- tips and tools.. for moving forward to work toward achieving more balance.

Without sharing lots of personal detail, I will say I have been in this mode quite a bit as of recently. Though..I have found many things which assist in creating more balance along the way. I will share what I am learning and hope you do too(:

Found this in a Goals to Action newsletter:

Category I Tasks that are both important and urgent Category II Tasks that are important but not urgent Category III Tasks that are urgent but not important Category IV Tasks that are neither urgent nor important

First, let me give you a bit of background as to why this is
relevant. A key principle in time management is that important
things are not always urgent and urgent things are not always
important. So you want to distinguish between importance and
urgency when deciding what to do.

Do you remember the old saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”?

Well, urgent things tend to be very squeaky and they grab your
attention.

If you aren’t careful, you can spend a lot of time dealing with
urgent things, even when they are not very important, and end up
not having enough time to deal with the important stuff that is not
as urgent.

Productive people purposefully spend most of their time on
important things, whether or not they are urgent.

*By spending time on important items before they become urgent, they
avoid many of the crises, problems, and “fires” that come up when
you neglect important things for too long*.

If you want to spend more of your time on important activities, you
obviously have to be able to distinguish between important and
unimportant tasks.

In fact, this is a critical skill for effective time management.

Here are 5 simple questions you can use to determine whether a task
is important or not…

• 1. What are the benefits?

What are some of the benefits that you’ll receive from completing
this task. The more important the benefits, the more important the
task.

• 2. What would happen if I didn’t do this task?

Ask yourself what would be the consequences of delaying or ignoring
this task. Important tasks tend to have serious consequences. So,
if there are no consequences for ignoring this task, it may not be
that important.

• 3. What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?

How does this task fit in with your current projects, goals, and
objectives?

• 4. What’s the payoff for completing the task?

An important task tends to have a good payoff or
return-on-investment for the time and effort you will put in to get
it done.

• 5. Can I link it to my mission, vision, or goals?

Any task that contributes to your long-term goals in some way is
bound to be important.

Using these 5 questions will help you decide whether a task is
important or not. Then it’s just a matter of consciously choosing
to spend more of your time on important projects and tasks.