Years ago I read a great little pamphlet, The Tyranny of the Urgent, by Charles E. Hummel. The concept that has stuck with me is the idea that if I listen to the ‘urgent’ things and give them my attention, the ‘important’ things will go undone. Urgent things aren’t bad to do; they just aren’t as productive as the important things. Apart from genuine emergencies, urgent things are simply urgent because they cry out in my thoughts giving me the impression that I have to do them RIGHT NOW! In most cases, this is really not true. Let me give you an example:
Sally starts her day helping her oldest kids get off to school while her toddler still sleeps. Once her kids are safely on the bus, her ‘to do’ list takes over her thoughts. She really wants to stop and spend some time in God’s Word and talking with Him, but instead she listens to the urgent cry, “I have to put a load of laundry in the washer.” Once she completes that task, she hears, “Aargh, Mike (her husband) forgot to take the trash out.” So, she takes the trash to the curb. Then, she hears, “I really need to dust the living room before Susie wakes up.” By the time she finishes dusting, Susie is awake demanding her full attention. Does she ever get to her Bible time and prayer? No. Why not? Because spending time in the Word and in prayer, did not cry out as loudly as the other tasks even though it would have benefitted her more to have her devotions.
How do we avoid the trap of the tyranny of the urgent? First, we have to be aware of what we are thinking instead of just letting our thoughts flow through our minds unchecked. This takes some practice, and we have to purpose in our hearts to learn to do it. Second, we need to learn to prioritize our daily tasks into one of four categories:
1. High Importance/ High Urgency: These tasks move to the top of the list because nothing moves forward before they are accomplished.
2. High Importance/ Low Urgency: These tasks need to be worked into our daily routine. It can help us to purpose that we are not going to anything ‘urgent’ until we accomplish this important task.
3. Low Importance/High Urgency: These are tasks that can scream at us “DO ME!”, but they really aren’t that important. We need to learn to focus on doing the important tasks first, and then turn our efforts to these tasks, or better yet, delegate them!
4. Low Importance/Low Urgency: These are truly the mundane tasks of life. We can allow for short 30 minute segments of your day to accomplish these tasks. Planning for them helps us prevent them from taking too much of our time. Again, if possible, we should delegate these tasks to others.*
As we plan our day, we simply need to decide what we are going to do and do it, and then decide what we do not need to do and not do those tasks. Unfortunately, sometimes it is hard to know how to properly categorize the tasks that are before us. Here are some questions that can help us evaluate our priorities:
1. What is required of us? In other words, what are the tasks that have to get done today that only we can do effectively? These tasks are moved to the top of our list.
2. What are the tasks that give us the greatest return? Are the results of our efforts worth the energy and time expended? In other words, are we being efficient in our efforts and not wasting them.
3. What tasks are the most rewarding? We should enjoy what we do. So, we should focus on doing what we enjoy the most and learn to do it well enough maybe even to make it our career.*
When we can prioritize the tasks that are requirements in a way that maximizes our productivity, doing these tasks will bring us great pleasure and motivate us toward continued success. So, whether we work at home or in the business world, learning to prioritize the important over the urgent is a key to having a productive, successful day.
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