| Sometimes urgent things are important
and sometimes they aren't. You will never have enough time for everything, so
you need to decide what is really important. Important activities are those
which help you to achieve your goals. Mast of us have learned to respond to
urgent requests at the expense of important tasks. Ignore important tasks at
your peril—they will escalate and become urgent, at which point you have yet
another crisis to deal with? Do you find yourself responding to "urgent" items or requests more quickly than "important" ones? Start making important tasks seem more urgent by setting deadlines for them, and schedule the activities into your day. Make sure. you take care of the important tasks, even if they are not urgent. When you do have to react to an "urgent request", spend some time thinking through your response. Solutions that are well thought out are usually better than impulsive reactions. If you start spending 80% of your time working with "Not Urgent but Important" items, and only 20% of your time on the others, your effectiveness will increase greatly. Most people start with the quick, easy or enjoyable tasks on their task list. Think about starting with the most important tasks instead. |