Learning. Life.

The problem with having a goal is that somehow you have to find time to do what has to be done to achieve it. Getting fitter means finding time to exercise. Getting organised means finding time to create and mange a system. Getting straight A’s means finding time to study. But where? It’s not as if our lives are great empty chasms, is it?

So the only answer is to make room by eliminating something that you already do. And naturally, it should be something that is less important than your new goal.

I humbly suggest that you look for things in your life that are not important to you, and eliminate those. Make sure that what you do is important to you (whether anyone else thinks it is important or not doesn’t matter, as long as you’re being honest with yourself). But please make your choices wisely – make sure that what you choose is going to benefit you over the long term, as well as the short term.

Enough said.

But there’s a sneaky category of tasks which masquerade as important, and in fact aren’t – and I’d like to talk about those a bit more.

I’m talking about things that are urgent, but not important.

Let me give you some examples. A salesman ringing about double-glazing is urgent (the phone is ringing insistently) but not important (unless you want double-glazing). However your sister ringing for help with a family crisis is both urgent and important. Playing Freecell is neither urgent nor important – in fact, to me computer games in total are neither urgent nor important, but many people treasure them as a recreational and social activity, so to them they are important, but probably not urgent. Spending time with your family and looking after your health are important, but not urgent – until a crisis looms. My neighbour WILL NOT put up a sign for her consulting business – when I answer my door to her customers it’s urgent (because they’re at my door, knocking) but not at all important to me.

However, it can be really hard to tell the difference between what’s urgent and what’s important. Let me tell you a story.

When I first started work I was finishing my degree part-time at night. My first boss would say “Kim, it’s 4:30 – go to your lecture”. But when she left, my new boss would say “Kim, it’s 4:30 – you need to do this, this and this before you go.” In fairness, I’m not sure he said I had to do them that day – but that was what I heard. And work was interesting and new, so I wanted to do that rather than go to a fusty old lecture. Pretty soon I was missing all my lectures, and working late instead. 

Then my boss organised a time management course for everyone. On the first day the trainer talked about the Urgency/Importance Matrix from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It changed my life.

The left side is tasks that are urgent. Some of these are important, and some are not – for example, a report that’s due tomorrow is both urgent and important. However, the neighbour’s client at my door is not important, it’s just urgent (because the guy is on my doorstep, and I have to deal with it now).

The right hand side is not urgent. However, some of these things are important, like the final exam in two months time.

After I learnt about this, I sat down and drew up my own Urgency/Importance matrix. I decided that my degree was quadrant 2 – it was important to me, but not (yet) urgent. I decided that my work was also important to me, and the jobs my boss was giving me late in the afternoon were urgent, but I didn’t know if they were important or not.

In my next post I’ll talk about what to do once you’ve figured out what’s important and what’s urgent in your life. Until then, you might find it useful to draw up your own matrix – the results may surprise you.