Today we are faced with an overwhelming number of challenges and choices that need to be addressed while we’re being constantly bombarded with emails, phone calls, texts, and tweets. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make meaningful progress on important goals because we are spending so much time fighting fires and dealing with distractions.
Urgent and Important
In 1954, former General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated that he had two kinds of problems. One he classified as urgent and the other he called important. He went on to say the urgent is rarely important and the important is seldom urgent. His time management system for achieving his most important goals was called the Eisenhower Principle.
Stephen Covey popularized this concept in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He created a four-quadrant matrix for prioritizing our urgent and important work. This tool helps us raise our awareness about how we are investing our time.
Here is a summary of the idea.
In Quadrant 1 (top left), we have important and urgent activities…items that need to be dealt with immediately. These are our 911 priorities. Some examples in this area include family emergencies, important requests from some clients, and deadlines for high-priority projects. We have to say yes to these problems.
In Quadrant 3 (bottom left), we have activities that feel urgent but aren't very important. Someone calls with a low-priority problem. A co-worker wants an immediate answer that could wait. Someone interrupts us with something they could manage themselves. A child asks us to solve a problem they're capable of working through.
Our instinct may be to help. But solving their problem is not always good for them or for our mental health.
If we're always available to provide the answer, solve the problem, or rescue someone from the consequences of poor planning, they may never develop the confidence, competence, and commitment to handle those situations themselves.
Sometimes a kind NO means we care enough to help in a different way.
In Quadrant 4, we have activities that are neither urgent nor important. These are things we don't have to do, but we do them anyway.
We check our phone in the middle of an important project for no reason. Scroll through social media. Browse the internet. Watch another video. Or find some easy busy work instead of doing what needs to be done. These as tension-relieving but not goal-achieving activities.
Nobody interrupted us. We interrupted ourselves. And every time we give in to that impulse, we are basing our actions on our feelings not our commitments.
In Quadrant 2 (top right), we have important, but not urgent items. These are critical actions that must be scheduled into our day. Some projects in this area include strategic planning, taking care of our health, improving relationships with co-workers, clients, family members, and friends. Coaching someone and being coached.
These are often some of the most valuable activities in our lives, but they have one major disadvantage: They are not urgent. They don't demand our attention.
Our health doesn't send us an urgent email reminding us to exercise. A good relationship doesn't sound an alarm telling us we haven't spent enough time together. Someone who needs our coaching or mentoring may not ask for it. The difficult conversation we need to have can easily be postponed for another day.
WHEN IS IT BETTER TO SAY NO?
Saying NO doesn't always come naturally. Like most important skills, it takes practice.
So, this week, before automatically saying YES to another request, interruption, or distraction, let's pause and ask ourselves two questions:
Will saying NO give someone the opportunity to think, solve a problem, and grow?
Will saying NO create more time for the important, but not urgent, actions that help our teams thrive and our families flourish?
The more we practice, the better we'll become at knowing when to say YES and when it's better to say NO.
Let's Get Better. Together.
Bill Durkin, Founder
One Positive Place
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