Urgent and Important
Todd Herman
Owner, Todd Herman & Associates. Since 1989, Todd Herman Associates has helped our clients in the areas of Information Systems, Process Improvement, and Business Analytics.
It seems everything is now, Now, NOW!! Whatever happened to important, Important, IMPORTANT ?
Have you noticed that work today is all about now, Now, NOW? While this expectation has been around since personal computers, the internet, and texting became widespread, it seems to have been turbocharged by Amazon Prime. Depending on your location, getting an online order within a few hours or – heaven forbid – the NEXT DAY has become the norm. But is getting that air fryer, or whatever gadget of the moment, really urgent? Or important?
The Eisenhower Matrix
Take a step back for a minute and look at your calendar. Is it also filled with tasks that appear urgent, or important, or both, yet might not be?
A time-honored decision-making tool that helps you distinguish tasks that are urgent, important, not urgent, and not important is the Eisenhower Matrix, named after a former President. It looks like this, splitting tasks into four quadrants that help you prioritize and appropriately address them.
I’m leaving for vacation on September 24 and – on September 2 – when I listed ALL the work-related tasks and SOME of the personal tasks, I thought I had to complete or delegate before I left, they numbered just over 100.
Still, even after using the Eisenhower Matrix approach to assign a priority and planned disposition to all my tasks, the sheer volume of tasks was overwhelming.
Refining These Concepts to Triage and Prioritize Tasks
I am very glad I made my comprehensive To Do list when I did, because it helped me recognize – sooner rather than later – the tasks where I depended on someone else for completion. For these, I also had to take the other person's schedule and lead time into account.
Some of the techniques I routinely use to refine the Urgent and Important concepts, even when I’m not leaving for vacation, include:
????1. Client Work – Ensure work for clients goes well and staff are on top of issues and priorities, to keep current revenue strong.
????2. Business Development – Initiate and juggle networking, marketing, and selling tasks, to develop future revenue opportunities.
????3. Practice Management – Handle the higher-level administrative tasks to keep Todd Herman Associates (THA) humming.
????4. All Other – Schedule vacations, holidays, and continuing professional education (CPE), and take other paid time off (PTO) as needed.
???1. Short – 30 min or less. Bundle these and do them when you find yourself with free time.
???2. Medium – 30 min to 2 hours. Bundle these, and put the bundle on your calendar.
???3. Long – More than 2 hours. Put these on your calendar, breaking down as needed into manageable steps.
??1. Took 6 large Post-It Notes, and used them to jot down the 6 combinations of the two task types and three time commitments. For example, BizDev/Medium was one of the 6 combinations.
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??2. Placed the 6 Post-Its in a line on the conference room table.
??3. Laid out all my tasks in a pile below the appropriate Post-It.
??4. Moved the time-sensitive tasks to the top of each pile.
As I started working each pile, I sometimes found a task’s actual deadline was later than I'd initially thought, or reflected an unduly aggressive internal due date, and thus could be safely pushed out until after I returned. Thus, I placed that task at the bottom of the pile and moved on to the next task.
Final Strokes
I'm writing this article on Monday, September 20. I leave for vacation this Friday at noon. Even though I've been diligently tackling tasks for the past 18 days, several Urgent and Important ones still remain. Here's how I'll address them:
The triage and prioritization techniques in the previous section allowed me to determine the 5 truly critical tasks and then obtain help from others to get them done, allowing time on Thursday to cover slippage and any new last-minute items. So, whatever I get done before vacation, above and beyond these 5 critical tasks, is a bonus!
Longer-Term Benefits
Although my pre-vacation examples focused on immediate needs, consistently using the Eisenhower Matrix and my triage and prioritization refinements will help you:
Applying the techniques in this article will help you implement “Put First Things First” – the third habit in Stephen R. Covey’s classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
One Final Productivity Tip
My Coach has a great productivity tip – "Think about WHY you can get so much done the day before vacation." Why? Because a flight departure is an immovable deadline, one that ensures FOCUS and ACTION!
Sincerely,
?
Todd L. Herman