A few mornings ago, my wife asked me if I was still doing my blog. Yes, was my answer and I reminded her that I had to take care of an urgent task, that was taking priority over my blog for the time being. Truth be told, I waited until the last minute to get my butt in gear to complete this task. While writing my blog is important to me and I try to make it a priority, sometimes I have to put other responsibilities ahead of it. Because as with other things in life, all tasks are not created equal. Some require more urgency than others! What needs to gets done first has to be prioritized. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had to reckon with this which has led me to write this post.
Just about all of us at some point, have made a list of things we say are important to us, and that we REALLY want to get around to doing. But most times, our list just sits around gathering dust, and we end up getting little done. Why is that? Maybe we have to ask ourselves a couple of questions:
· How urgent and/or important are the things on our list?
· What is most important to get done first, second, third, and so on?
I have to admit that I’m not a big list guy, but I know how helpful they can be. My wife is a pro at list making and more importantly, at getting items done on her list. While everything on a list can be important, that doesn’t mean that everything has the same level of urgency. Sometimes priorities that we list as being urgent, don’t rise to that standard.
For example, let’s say that Joe goes to the doctor and is told that he has to reduce his blood pressure or he’ll be dead within 6 months. Joe is an intelligent guy who wants to live a long life. He knows that reducing his numbers is urgent and pretty damn important, so he makes getting healthier his number one priority. For a couple of weeks Joe changes his diet and starts taking daily walks. But the lure of his old habits becomes too strong and before long, he’s back to eating poorly and not exercising. He tells himself that he will get back around to eating right and exercising, he’s just taking a little break. While reducing his high blood pressure might be important to Joe, is he acting with urgency?
There are times when clients come to me stressed out because they have a long list of things they want to accomplish, but don’t know where to start. Having to prioritize things on a list is a challenge for everyone, whether it’s a list of household chores, personal goals or office tasks. Heck, hundreds of books are written on this subject because most people suck at deciding between what’s merely important and what’s truly urgent on their list!
I remember reading years ago about the Eisenhower Matrix which was developed by former US President Dwight Eisenhower. Its purpose is to help you separate urgent tasks from important tasks. The matrix also helps you to decide what tasks to delegate and which tasks on your list you’d be better off not doing at all.
The urgent stuff on your list should be things you need to get on right away. Could be things that relate to your mental and or physical health, or even responding to urgent emails, texts or phone messages. Other things could be important, but not urgent. You might be planning on running a marathon someday. This might be a worthwhile and important goal, but more long-term and not urgent.
The Eisenhower Matrix consists of 4 quadrants:
· Urgent and Important: Do these tasks as soon as possible
· Important, but not urgent: Decide when you’ll do these and schedule it
· Urgent, but not important: Delegate these tasks to someone else
· Neither urgent nor important: Drop these from your schedule as soon as possible
You simply assign a task/goal to one of the four quadrants and do the Urgent and Important ones first. In the case with Joe, reducing his blood pressure was considered urgent and important. But, as we saw from Joe’s actions, he treated reducing his blood pressure as important but not urgent at best. When it comes to health and wellness, I’ve run across a lot of folks like “Joe” who insist that things like getting in shape, eating better, learning how to chill, getting more sleep, and doing activities that really make them happy, is their greatest priority. Yet, another day goes by and they’ve still done nothing.
I remember working with an outstanding businesswoman years ago. Beth wanted to become one of the company’s top income earners nationally. It was her top priority and she acted like it. She said that while she was pursuing her goal, the laundry and dishes piled up and her house was a mess. Cleaning the laundry and the house was important, but didn't take priority over her becoming a top income earner. Beth went on to become one of top income earners, not only in our company but in our industry. She knew what to focus her energies on because she knew what was urgent and important at the time.
Perhaps by using the Eisenhower Matrix, you will not only discover what is truly urgent and important at the moment, but you will actually get around to getting this task done as soon as possible. So, delegate someone else to open up that second bottle of wine, you’re too busy getting stuff done! Fact is, life is too damn short not to prioritize your time. Every second not lived with urgency, is a second wasted. I have to remind myself of this fact constantly. After all is said and done, how do you want to spend the rest of your precious days, hours, minutes and seconds?
Thanks for reading another edition of The Z Spot Blog. I always appreciate your time and comments. To subscribe to my blog, sign into my website and just know that I will never share your email. Here's to the best health you can achieve!
Thanks,
Zo
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