Urgent vs Important

I am still being impacted by my reading of ‘4000 weeks’ which I discussed last week.

One of the thought provoking ideas in this book is the concept that we spend so much time doing the urgent that we forgo the important. 

My next thought from here is how this deficit adds up over time. If we keep choosing the urgent over the important, what are the chances that we end up living an un-important life? Or at the least living a life doing nothing that feels very important…

The fact is, we will never get through all the urgent tasks. We will never be finished. 

A personal snapshot: 

The moment I finish mowing the lawn, it starts growing again. 

The moment I clean up the house, it starts getting messy again. 

The moment my inbox is down to zero, it starts filling up again. 

The urgent will always be there. And by selecting urgent over the important we can allow the urgent to rob us of those things that are important. 

Catch ups with mates. 

Surfing… I don’t know when I was last in the water.

Doing stuff with the kids and family – writing to you from the school holidays certainly feels like a priority juggle, that is for sure. 

Am I any better off, richer, happier, more complete or fulfilled for dealing with all that urgent? I don’t know for sure, but don’t I feel like I am. 

And even ‘career’ stuff seems to suffer – bearing in mind that it’s ‘work’ that creates most of the ‘urgent’. 

I have a book to write. Zero pages into that. 

I have a podcast to commit to. Zero episodes so far.

Of course a commitment to any one of these may create a new ‘urgent’ loop. 

I am not wired up just to sit back, relax and chill out, and I am not suggesting that is the solution. 

What I am really looking at is finding ways for doing more important things, and allowing the flood of ‘urgent’ that I live with – as you do too – to be firmly placed into perspective.