Urgency and Importance

For decades, Time Management experts have been advising to view their tasks in terms of factors - how important they are, and how urgent they are.

This same principle can be applied to the information we deal with in our life.

If you are getting dozens of e-mails a day, how to you determine which ones require the most attention?

How Important Is It?

• A year from now, how significant will this be?
• Will it affect me long term?

How Urgent Is It?

• Do I have to deal with this now?
• What are the consequences of putting it off until later?

Generally, Importance is to do with Impact, and Urgency is to do with Time.

Instinctively, we will tend to deal with issues that are urgent before we deal with issues that are important. In the long term, this can lead to big problems - because we spend our time doing trivial tasks, while never thinking in the bigger scheme of things.