“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."

– Gen. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State

Tuesday Topic: Urgent vs. Important

We have all experienced this.

There are 1,000 things to do and no time to do them. Everyone is telling you to finish a different task at the same time. So, what do you do?

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II. He later served as the President of the United States. It is safe to say that he had more going on than you do. Yet, Eisenhower used a simple system to organize himself and the tasks he had to accomplish. He first decided if the task was urgent or not urgent. Then, if it was important or not important, he would manage them based on the chart below. He ensured he accomplished the most urgent and important tasks first. Then, he or his staff began to work on the other, less essential tasks.

More critical to his ability to accomplish the most important tasks was his ability to identify the tasks that were neither urgent nor important. Eisenhower DID NOT do those tasks.

Understanding how to prioritize your tasks will help you accomplish more over time. You will have time to get ahead of others after completing the most important/urgent tasks. You will also have less to do once you have eliminated all of your not urgent/not important tasks and found others to delegate the urgent/not important tasks to.

A Note on the Tasks You Delegate

When you identify a task that you label as urgent/not essential or even not urgent/important, you will want to delegate it to someone else; this is effective only if the person you task understands the importance of putting their best work into that task. You can do this by making the task urgent/important for them or simply helping them understand the purpose behind the assignment and why their effort is critical to the team's success. The latter is likely to produce better results.

Need a Good Book?

Do you want to learn a thing or two from the man who helped train Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant? Tim Grover’s book is motivating to read about what it takes to become a “cleaner” and achieve excellence in your field. The audiobook has additional content and can be completed in a few hours.

Next Week: Why you should stop using the frontal attack for everything.