The urgent problems are seldom the important ones
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

Though our job descriptions say otherwise, most of us have grown up to be professional fire fighters. We wrestle urgent problems to the ground, jump when the phone rings, focus on the crisis de jour and often forget to step back and assess whether we are spending our time intelligently.

Exploring the distinction between what is urgent and what is important can be a real eye opener. Urgent issues call for immediate action. Important issues are marked by significant worth or consequence. Urgent is the issue that came up at 9pm last night. Important is the task that will help your business succeed a year from now. Urgent issues grab us NOW!!! Important issues are easy to postpone—like old dogs they wait quietly and patiently for our attention – until finally our dereliction of duty morphs them into angry wolves whose hunger threatens our businesses. If you’re like most people, urgent issues get to cut to the front of the line and though we believe we are keeping our selves, relationships and businesses safe, we are often in harm’s way.

Sometimes urgent things are important and sometimes they are not—and therein lies the rub. Since almost every crisis of the moment is easily identified as urgent and purports to be important, unless we step back and choose how we should allocate our time, the hot button issue of the moment will always claim our attention.

In Stephen Covey’s book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” he categorizes activities into four groups:

1. Urgent and Important
2. Not Urgent and Important
3. Urgent and Not Important
4. Not Urgent and Not Important

The highest payoffs and greatest opportunities are usually in category 2. Covey asks “What one thing could you do in your personal or professional life that, if you did it on a regular basis, would make a tremendous difference in your life?” Activities in category 2 have that kind of impact.

The first order of business is to begin to distinguish between what is “urgent” and what is “important.” Set aside a little time to identify some projects that fall into category 2—not urgent but important. As you generate ideas for inclusion on your list ask yourself one of the following questions to ensure that the task clears the “importance” hurdle: ‘What is the significant opportunity here?” or “Why bother?” or “What’s important about completing this project?”

Then try this simple four-step recipe to ensure that you are making time to focus on important tasks and projects:

1. At the end of work today, spend ten minutes identifying three ‘important’ things you will do tomorrow.
2. Write down these three activities on tomorrow’s to do list in order of importance, A1, A2 and A3.
3. Now, go to your calendar and find an hour (often first thing in the day works best) when you will devote yourself only to completing or advancing these three important tasks.
4. Here’s the clincher. You must treat this designated hour with the same respect and significance as you would a meeting with another person. Just because you’ll be the only one in the room is no excuse to get fast and loose with your scheduling.

I can absolutely promise you that if you do not commit to spending time on what is important in your life and in your business, you will spend all of your time focused on the screaming issue of the moment. And though we have all grown to be extremely competent firefighters, successful lives and careers depend on our ability to take off the red hat from time to time.

The best leaders of all, the people know not they exist.
They turn to each other and say ‘We did it ourselves.’
~ Zen Saying

Dina Silver, MCC, is the Principal of Pegasus Coaching Group.

I specialize in leadership coaching working with senior executives and their teams to create great leaders and high impact groups. I have enjoyed success working with technically proficient people who need guidance in developing the interpersonal skills that are essential to effective and compelling leadership.

My background in the entertainment industry as a feature film and interactive game producer effectively assists me in helping leaders develop powerful executive presence so that ideas and challenging initiatives are met with keen interest and excitement. In order to lead, people must be excited to follow!

I have enjoyed trusted advisor status with high performance individuals, teams and organizations, coaching in high tech, entertainment, banking, and marketing.

I hold a B.A. in United States History from Princeton University. I am a Master Certified Coach (MCC) and hold my credentialing through the International Coach Federation. In addition, I am certified in a range of assessment tools including DISC and PIAV, and am an active member of Professional Coaches and Mentors Association (PCMA) and the International Coach Federation (ICF). I am married, have two teenage kids, two fat black cats and live in Santa Monica, CA.

If you are interested in learning more about how my work may be of value to you and your organization, please get in touch. I am happy to offer interested prospects a complimentary and confidential half hour coaching session so you can take me and coaching for a test drive.