Urgent or Important?

We’re in the 2nd week of 2022. (Lots of 2s there. ;-) ) How many times already this year have things that you had planned to do on any given day been bumped for something urgent. A call, email, text, slack or teams message - perhaps even the good old-fashioned “drive by” if you’re in the office (or have a coworker who has decided to make that phrase literal). Any of these can not only interrupt your train of thought, but they can also come in screaming hot. Urgent!?Take care of me immediately! Do not pass ‘Go.!’

Nearly 33 years ago Stephen Covey published?The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.?In that book he introduced the world to the Eisenhower Matrix, a four-quadrant model that reflects President Eisenhower’s emphasis of ensuring the important wasn’t squeezed out by the urgent.

The idea is to map Urgent and Important together across four quadrants.?Things clamoring for your attention are then placed in one of the four quadrants and that determines how you deal with it.

In Quadrant 1, upper left corner, you have Urgent AND Important.?These are things that are truly important to you or your organization, and typically have a deadline that is close.?Hand these immediately.

In Quadrant 2, upper right corner, you have NOT Urgent BUT Important.?These are things that are truly important to you or your organization, but the deadline (if there is one) is seemingly far away.?There’s no “squeaky wheel” here crying out for your attention.?Perhaps things here remind you of their presence periodically, a gnawing in the back of your mind that surfaces at inopportune times.?You either schedule working on these items and complete them before they become urgent, or, they eventually move from Quadrant 2 into Quadrant 1 and demand your immediate attention.

In Quadrant 3, lower left corner, are those things that are Urgent, but honestly not important (or at least, not important enough to garner your attention).?But get your attention they do - masquerading as important solely because they are urgent.?In our personal life, knowing that mail is delivered at, say, 2PM might cause a sense of urgency to “stop hat you’re doing and get the mail - after all, there might be something important in there.” But the mail is secure in your mailbox, and you can get it at your convenience.?By the way, the same justification is used for our email inbox - the desire to stay current because “there may be something important” versus the reality - an organized list of other people’s demanda on your time - and seldom urgent.

In Quadrant 4, the lower right corner, are the NOT Urgent, NOT Important items - time wasters. While there may be some play things in here that do deserve a little time (go ahead, play Wordle) - getting sucked into a marathon binge on Netflix, or hours on TikTok, are indicative of the dangers of Quadrant 4.

A note about play, and personal pursuits - above i stated “Important to you OR your organization.”?That was intentional.?Pursuing your hobby, taking a vacation, spending time with family, having a tea party with your daughter - these are Important and come with varying senses of urgency. But they can also be placed in the Eisenhower Matrix.

Now that you understand how the Eisenhower Matrix works, start thinking about where you’re spending your time - personally and professionally.??

If you’re living in Quadrant 1, you are likely feeling overwhelmed; like you’re always firefighting, and that you can’t get ahead.?At some level (likely front and center) you know the Quadrant 2 items that require your attention and you’d like to “have the time to work on them.”

You can’t live in Quadrant 2, realistically, but you certainly can find ways to spend more time here.

What’s true of Quadrant 1 is doubly true of Quadrant 3 - only you’re not even getting important things done.?Quadrant 1 would be a better place overall for you, because you’re probably already experiencing overwhelm and a feeling of perpetual behindedness.

Finally, if you’re living in Quadrant 4, well, move. Now.?This is only a place for sightseeing and short stays.

Here’s the thing - Urgent items usually carry a sense of importance, even when they aren’t at all.?And when we complete them, we get a dopamine hit just for completing the action - even if it wasn’t important at all.?That’s a challenge.

So, go through your “to do” list and determine where everything truly belongs - Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4.?Then double-check Q1.?Anything from Q3 sneak in there? Look at Q3 - anything there that really belongs in Q4?

If you have a great deal of Q3 items, try to move them off your plate, automate them, or get your boss (or spouse) to agree to eliminate them altogether.

Finally, organize Q1 and Q2:

Q1 can be organized in order of importance. Imagine a line moving down and stopping above each item - if the item below can wait a day, move it to the bottom of the list. Go through the whole list until you get to the first item you moved to the bottom. Then ensure everything above the line is in the order you need to complete them.?Remember to consider priorities and the work of others.

Q2 should be generally organized by due date (when there is one) and impact. Those things that have due dates - schedule time on your calendar to complete them before the due date.?(In fact, I highly recommend thinking first about “start date” - the soonest you can begin something, and planning from there.). For those items without due dates, schedule those too and honor that time as if there were a due date.

Ultimately, the magic of the Eisenhower matrix isn’t an organized list of items,?It’s the thinking that goes into determining where items should be placed, AND the designation of time on your calendar to complete the Quadrant 2 items.?Focus on those things, spending as much time in Quadrant 2 as possible.?That’s where you’re really needed!