I believe if we
were honest, our answer would be “No”. We all are guilty of squandering some time on
tasks of less importance. Certain items
on our to-do lists which desperately need our attention are continually pushed
to the bottom of the list for a variety of reasons. We vow we are not
procrastinators simply because we’re always busy. So what’s up with that?
Urgent versus Important
This excerpt
from Carl Richard’s book, The
Behavior Gap, is long-winded but worth the read. His explanation offers answers for why we
have a tendency to complete less important tasks.
Carl Richards
writes:
“Some tasks are
both urgent and important. They belong at the top of your list. Some tasks are urgent but not so important;
still others are important but not so urgent.
Typically, the ones that are urgent but not important get done. The phone gets answered. So does reading the Facebook posting from
your high school classmate.
Meanwhile, the
tasks that are important but not urgent drop to the bottom of the list and stay
there. This can cause big problems. Dreams are awfully important. But they often don’t
seem urgent. And so our dreams fall to
the bottom of our list.
You might need to
fix the car – that’s probably urgent, and might be pretty important. Shopping for a new surfboard? Probably feels urgent, but it’s not as
important as some of the non-urgent stuff that will affect your family’s
long-term security. (My surfer friends
may disagree.) Clarifying who will take
custody of your children if you die?
Might not feel so urgent, but it can be awfully important.
On a day-to-day
basis it’s easier to focus on the urgent stuff, leaving non-urgent but
important stuff to wait. Which would you
do first: get the car washed or update your will? The car is really dirty! The will? What’s the rush?
What’s more,
updating your will – like buying life insurance or setting up college savings
account – is a complicated process.
Washing the car is easy.
We also enjoy the
sense of checking urgent (not always important) things off a list. Some urgent tasks (shopping for that
surfboard!) are even fun. By comparison,
sitting down and working through the details of your personal and financial
lives may not seem to offer the same sense of excitement and immediate
gratification (though it can).
Of course, the
important eventually becomes truly urgent.
But by then it may be too late to do much about it.”
Did you
discover why we have a tendency to complete less important tasks? Tasks which are fun, easy to do, or provide
instant gratification are likely to get done before tasks which have a steep
learning curve and are time consuming.
So now what?
Understanding Time Management
While you need
to have a to-do list to check off tasks, you also need to determine the order
in which your tasks can be completed so you can make wise use of your time.
Carl Richard’s
reference resembles the time management concept presented in Stephen Covey’s book,
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People. When we examine our
activities, we can break each into one of four quadrants, as illustrated in the
above diagram.
·
Important and not urgent (Important Goals)
·
Important and urgent (Critical Activities)
·
Not important and urgent (Interruptions)
·
Not important and not urgent. (Distractions)
It is helpful to designate tasks as either “urgent” or “important”. Stephen Covey defines “urgent” as the things which require your immediate attention and “important” as things having to do with results related to your mission, values, and high priority goals. Ideally, we want to be proactively working on the issues that are “important but not urgent” in order to prevent events from escalating to issues that will become both “important and urgent”.
What’s the next
step?
Let’s Get It Done
I would venture
to guess that we know which tasks provide an everlasting effect on our personal
and business financial health. What may
slow us down is deciding which tasks should be completed first. I am in favor of finding the right tools (or
worksheets) which can help get the job done.
It’s helpful to have a visual picture like this worksheet to rank the
goals in order of priority. It also
allows everyone to complete their individual worksheet and then arrange a joint
meeting to discuss the order of goals in urgency and importance.
Now You Know
We look at the
calendar, see another day slip by, and quickly say “Good-bye” to another
month. We know we’ve been busy but we’re never
entirely sure what we’ve accomplished.
Surely, one task or goal requiring our attention was left
untouched. We have a fleeting thought
that one day it will get done. The
challenge is to stop and make a sincere effort to begin the process of tackling
that goal. It may be one of your important goals.
Stephen Covey’s
wisdom rests in these words, “The key is not
to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
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