Do We Go For The URGENT One? Or The IMPORTANT One?

Do We Go For The URGENT One?  Or The IMPORTANT One?

Yessirrrrrrs, there's a very huge gap that separates the URGENT ones versus the IMPORTANT ones.  So, Do We Go For The URGENT One?  Or The IMPORTANT One?  The late U.S. President Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower was well quoted when he quipped:  I HAVE TWO KINDS OF PROBLEMS:  THE URGENT AND THE IMPORTANT.  THE URGENT ARE NOT IMPORTANT AND THE IMPORTANT ARE NOT URGENT, whew!!!

Very true, there is that HUGE difference between the IMPORTANT versus the URGENT ones at hand any day.  Now, let's dice and drill here.  URGENT ones are always focused on the present moment, like they need attention RIGHT NOW and if they are NOT dealt with, the consequences also happen RIGHT NOW.  On the other hand, IMPORTANT ones belong to the long-term goals and items more of strategic value .  They are slower, connected to a 'long game' of personal OR professional development💧💧💧

Truth is, we tend to give our attention to URGENT tasks at the expense of IMPORTANT tasks.  URGENT tasks come in HOT into our inboxes and 'scream loudly' for resolution and they have always been tagged as the 'LATEST and LOUDEST'.  They are almost always someone else's problem, given to us on a short notice and that amplifies the volume.  So naturally, we tend to focus on those first.  YES, sometimes, that is the right thing to do BUT it does become a serious problem WHEN we are only dealing with the URGENT and NOT giving adequate time to the IMPORTANT things that sit there, quietly and patiently😊😊😊

Through the years at work managing operations and delivery teams, every member was driven by SLA's [service level agreements].  That's on the assumption that every single ticket initiated by our clients was both URGENT + IMPORTANT.  But the $64 question is, are each of those raised tickets REALLY URGENT + IMPORTANT?  Based on the years of experience behind me, I think that that assumption is so off-track because, culling from my first-hand experiences, easily 30% may be either URGENT or IMPORTANT but 100% CAN'T be both URGENT + IMPORTANT!!!

Our takeaway:  DON'T look so far away and DON'T turn simple circumstances into complex ones.  Instead, can we consider [and embrace this Eisenhower Matrix] which divides all tasks across flur [4] quadrants.  And WHAT's eye-opening here is that we are being encouraged to dump OR ignore anything that is NOT both URGENT + IMPORTANT.  Instead, what this quadrant tells us that in 3 out 4 scenarios, we can still pursue that task by either DOING, PLANNING or DELEGATING tasks.  So, DO WE GO FOR THE URGENT ONE?  OR THE IMPORTANT ONE?  OR BOTH???