People often tell me that urgent means you have to do it, or that important means you need to do it soon – and these are both totally wrong!
But even more vital to understand, but more tricky, is that it is also WRONG to think that if you have to do it, it must be important.
Urgency is to do with when you do it, and importance is to do with whether you value it, whether it adds value, how WELL you should do it – and therefore how long you should spend on it.
Here are some more thoughts on this tricky subject….
So is buying food important? No!
Admittedly you have to do it or you will starve, but you probably want to spend the minimum time on it, it’s a “maintenance task” rather than a “progress task”, you would probably press a magic button or delegate it if you could, if it was somehow automated and you never had to do it again you wouldn’t miss it, and doing it REALLY well doens’t add any value – so by all of these measures, it’s NOT important!
OK let’s try another example – visiting the toilet:
HAVE to do it – yes – but irrelevant
Might be urgent – yes – but irrelevant
Want to spend minimum time? Probbaly yes -> not important
Maintenance rather than progress? Yes -> not important
Would you press a magic button / delegate it? Yes -> not important
If you never had to do it again would you miss it? No -> not important
Does doing it REALLY well add any extra value? No -> not important
…. it’s not important
Final example – going to the beach with your grand children:
HAVE to do it? – no – but that’s irrelevant
Might not be urgent – also irrelevant
Want to spend minimum time? No -> Important
Maintenance rather than progress? No -> Important
Would you press a magic button / delegate it? No -> Important
If you never had to do it again would you miss it? Yes -> Important
Does doing it REALLY well add any extra value? Yes -> Important
Would it benefit from extra time spent? Yes -> Important
…. It IS important
