Urgency Does Not Equal Importance

Don't let the urgent get in the way of the important."

~ Kay Yow

Prioritising is hard.

One of the reasons I see many people struggling to prioritise is that they've conflated urgency with importance.

This idea comes from Steven Covey's 1989 book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey's 4 Quadrants are a go-to tool for me whether I'm coaching start-up founders or stressed out over-doers.

The basic premise is simple. Our brains don't seem to be very good at distinguishing between urgency and importance. Whilst we can use this to our advantage at times by creating deadlines or external accountability, it also means that we often never quite get around to the things that are important to us that aren't urgent.

Quadrant 1 – Urgent and Important
Quadrant 1 contains those activities and responsibilities that require your immediate attention. Pressing problems, emergencies and (important) tasks with an immediate deadline fall into this quadrant.

The problem is if you spend most of your time managing crises and  problems, you get stuck on the hamster wheel, always feeling behind the curve.  This leads to stress, burnout, and constantly putting out fires.
Strategy = Do It.

Quadrant 2 – Not Urgent but Important
Quadrant 2 is all those things that are not urgent right now but are still important. Things like strategic planning, relationship building,  exercise, preparation, education and other personal development  activities – all things we know we need to do but somehow seldom get  around to actually doing, because they don’t feel urgent.

Quadrant 2 activities are the ones that will really make the  difference to your life and help you accomplish a lot more of what you  want. This is where highly effective people focus the most.
Strategy = Schedule It.

Quadrant 3 – Urgent but Not important
The third quadrant would contain items that appear to have a high urgency but are not at all important. Interruptions and distractions, like the constant phone or email notifications, fall into this quadrant. Other people's priorities are often Quadrant 3 activities.

Ideally, you want to eliminate all of Quadrant 3 by either delegating it out to others or by politely saying No.

If you find that you’re constantly getting interrupted by others then  it might be an idea to set up a designated time to deal with such  things all in one go to save yourself time.
Strategy = Avoid It.

Quadrant 4 – Not Urgent and Not Important
Quadrant 4 activities are basically time-wasting activities that are not urgent and offer no value. Think mindless social media scrolling, endless Netflix binges, or my personal favourite Solitaire.

"Busy work" is also a Quadrant 4 favourite. The times when you're sat at your computer "working" but really you're just looking busy.

That's not to say that downtime isn't important. In fact, I would argue deep play and deliberate rest are actually Quadrant 2 activities; they are important but could be done anytime so often don't get done at all.
Strategy = Delete It.  

How to Use the Matrix

There are two traditional ways to use this model.

One way to use this Matrix is retrospective. How much time have you spent in each Quadrant over the past week, the past month or the past quarter? This is particularly useful to identify how much time you're wasting in Quadrant 3 and 4.

You can also use it to help you prioritise going forward. Covey suggests we should be spending up to 80% of our time in Quadrant 2 and, by doing so, we will naturally spend less time fire-fighting in Quadrant 1. Map out your to-do list into the various quadrants. How will you make more time for Quadrant 2 tasks? Because Quadrant 2 time doesn't simply happen; it will always be crowded out by the urgent. How will you schedule more (uninterrupted, quality) Quadrant 2 time?

As a somatic coach, I'm going to suggest a third way to play with this model. Notice how your body feels in each Quadrant. What do you do in your body in these various modes? Imagine yourself being in each of the four Quadrants and pay attention to how you hold your body, how you breathe, and how you feel.

With this detailed felt sense of each Quadrant, you can more quickly notice when you're spending time outside Quadrant 2 so you can make more informed choices about how you use your time.

Let me know how this resonates for you and if you have any questions.