Joke of the Day

Dr. Biden and President Biden went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. 

DR. Biden said, "I'll have a steak and some french fries."  

The server said, " And what about your vegetable?" 

Dr. Biden then said, " Oh, he will have the same".

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important

 

What if I told you that a decision framework has been developed that absolutely transforms how you figure out what to do with your time? It’s called the Eisenhower Matrix (from a book by Stephen Covey “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”) and I will show you how to use it to do things that actually move the needle getting to your goals. This technique is an effective method meant to focus your attention on the tasks that matter most to your professional and personal growth.

Everything you do in life can be categorized by its urgency and its importance.

Urgent: Tasks and responsibilities requiring immediate action or attention, the tasks that shout “Now!”

Important: are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals.

We often spend our lives focused on the Urgent things instead of the Important things. It is important to learn to distinguish between the two.

[chart of quadrants in Eisenhower Matrix]

• Quadrant 1: Urgent and important

• Quadrant 2: Not urgent but important

• Quadrant 3: Urgent but not important

• Quadrant 4: Not urgent and not important

By common sense, if a task is urgent and important (Quadrant 1), definitely do it. This could be filing taxes on time, or taking out the trash.

If a task is not urgent and not important (Quadrant 4), just cut it out. Learn to say no to someone who recommends such a task to you. An example is if your mom asks you to climb onto the roof to check for any dead birds. It is not aligned with your life mission. Quadrant 4 tasks are also associated with slackers, they do tasks such as browsing social media all day long or mindlessly watching TV. I think if most of us did a time audit on ourselves, we’d find that we spend an inordinate amount of time on Q4 activities.

If a task is urgent, but not important (Quadrant 3), then you don’t care so much that it gets done correctly, and therefore you could delegate it. The word “urgent” means that the activity is TIME-SENSITIVE or deadline driven. Here are examples of activities that fall into quadrant 3: unimportant interruptions and phone calls. Quadrant 3 is known as the Quadrant of Deception where the noise of urgency creates the illusion of importance. At the end of the day do you feel completely sapped of energy, and yet can’t point to anything you accomplished of real significance? If so, you may be subconsciously confusing the urgent with the important.

Don’t Confuse the Urgent with Important

The point of the Eisenhower Matrix follows from a quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower, a commander during WW2 and 34^th U.S. President (no small tasks):

“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

This is where Quadrant 2 comes in, the tasks that are not urgent but nonetheless important. It is these tasks that make the biggest impact on where our life goes. Just doing Q1 will keep you exactly where you are. All the stuff that will move your business or your life meaningfully forward always lives in Quadrant 2. And here’s the crazy thing about Q2. No one will ask you to do it.

The game of life is played in Quadrant 2

Q2 tasks are typically centered around strengthening relationships, planning for the future, and improving yourself. Examples are spending time with the family, exercising, taking time to improve a skill, or creating a monthly budgeting plan. In terms of a business, it could be to build a website, revamp branding, implement online ordering, research franchising (increasing the revenue). Though the Q2 activities are what gives us lasting happiness and success, most of us tend to latch onto what stimuli are most urgent. We have a strong bias to focus on whatever is most pressing at the moment. It’s hard to get motivated to do something when there isn’t a deadline looming over our head. Departing from this fallback position takes self-discipline – qualities that don’t come naturally and must be actively cultivated.

Because Q2 activities aren’t pressing for our attention, we typically keep them forever on the backburner of our lives and tell ourselves, “I’ll get to those things ‘someday’ after I’ve taken care of this urgent stuff.” We even put off figuring out what’s most important in life, which of course only perpetuates a cycle where all we ever take care of are the most urgent to-dos on our list.

But “someday” will never come; if you’re waiting to do the important stuff until your schedule clears up a little, trust me when I say that it won’t. You’ll always feel about as busy as you are now, and if anything, life just gets busier as time goes on. To overcome our inherent present-bias that prevents us from focusing on Q2 activities, we must live our lives intentionally. You have to consciously decide, “I’m going to make time for these things come hell or high water!”

Important and urgent things (Q1), such as crises and emergencies, should not be ignored. However, the more time you can spend on the non-urgent but important things (prevention, planning, improvement) the less crises and emergencies you will experience.

Life is chaos. There is no order. In my line of work, I routinely see entire families unexpectedly die for no rhyme or reason. You can’t rely on any straight path to achieve your life mission. If you spend your life just putting out small fire after small fire, without making any real progress toward your life mission, the chaotic nature of life will eventually get you. I’ve been in life setbacks where I’ve felt so helpless, yet I continued to fight my way back with small victories doing the important things that nobody ever told me were urgent (Quadrant 2). We must not only endure through the trials and tribulations of life, but must become a nimble participant to reach our life missions.

Focus on your health, invest your savings, cultivate your relationships. With this, I leave you with my article on why you should invest the right way.