Urgency vs. Importance

As technology continues to increase the speed of communication, leaders often lose efficiency because they unintentionally focus attention on low return external requests. Sometimes immediate action is justified but most of the time, non-critical tasks cause a false sense of urgency.  Regarding the latter, there is a choice.  

Many of us who own, invest, or act as board members for multiple businesses are still using the strategy of checking every task box in the order that it is presented to us, regardless of level of importance. Our attachment to completing task lists with the imagined benefit that we will then relax, feel less stressed, or some other imagined positive outcome is distorted. This is because for the busy executive, no matter what you accomplish, more is piled onto your list. It is the nature of the beast. 

When we’re caught in the “task completion trap”, we spin because the hamster wheel eternally continues to spin. If this is happening to you, it might be helpful to start an intentional working practice that begins to group tasks by level of importance and urgency. Urgent, high-return and essential tasks should be attended to first. If tasks are important but non-urgent, ask yourself,  “what are the urgent tasks that make the largest impact and grow our business today”.  If the task is non-urgent, find a way to delegate it to someone you trust. 

Temporarily untethering from emails and inter-office chat to focus on tasks that bring about high outcomes is almost always necessary for leaders to stop focusing on the spinning wheel and return to their greatness. Let others know that you will be blocking off time in your schedule. Don’t worry, the emails will still be there when you are done.