Page 13 - Leadership Basics 8

 Urgency
Consider whether the action is urgent. Do you really have to do it now? Urgency refers to time
pressure to complete the task. Would it be more effective to do it at another time? It is vital
that you distinguish between urgent tasks and important tasks. Urgent tasks can often be
unimportant but have a tendency to push really important tasks into the background. Unless
urgent or ‘crisis’ tasks need your immediate attention you should not spend too much time on
them. There is the danger that important tasks could be pushed into the background. These
important tasks are those activities which are tied to your identified key results areas. Urgent
tasks are often initiated by others – you should attempt to control the amount of time you
spend on them.

You need to consider also the order in which tasks should be done. This is called prioritizing.
Both the urgency and importance of the task need to be accounted for. One way to do this is
presented in the figure on the right.

 If a task is very important and very urgent, Importance and Urgency
you must do it immediately. It cannot wait
Consider some of the tasks you face this week.
and is congruent with what you believe is
Ask yourself how important and urgent they
important. are? Rate the tasks on these dimensions on the
corresponding axis. This will give you some idea
 If a task is very important but not urgent,
of the priority of the task.
you have time to work on it. You can even
delegate parts of it to start the process. Be
careful not to put these tasks off for too
long. Remember, they are important to
achieving your overall goals.
 If a task is very urgent but not important,
you can deal with it in two ways. Do it now
but do not spend too much time on it – get
it out of the way quickly. Alternatively,
delegate it to someone else.
 If a task is neither important nor urgent, ask
yourself whether you should even be doing
it. These tasks should be shelved, ignored
or delegated.

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