This column is by Janet Stanton, Partner, Adam Smith, Esq.
One of the most enduring and vexing problems we all face (almost all the time) is how to sort through the myriad competing (conflicting?), shifting priorities that arise minute-by-minute and pull us in all directions – where we end up accomplishing…actually not all that much (and certainly not the stuff that really matters). And, the cycle starts up again tomorrow morning. Leading to the age-old question…
How can I make the best use of my available time and resources?
Sadly, we don’t have a magic wand.
What we do have to offer up a gem of crystal-clear thinking…the Eisenhower Box (yes, that Eisenhower).
The genius of this tool is its simplicity. If not immediately obvious, it helps distinguish between tasks based on importance (y-axis) and urgency (x-axis), thereby highlighting the most critical issues to focus on.
Perhaps a bit more subtly, it gives us permission to entirely ditch unnecessary (and probably annoying) obligations (“not important and not urgent”) – and to look for alternative solutions for tasks in the “urgent, but not important” quadrant. You really don’t (and shouldn’t) have to do it all.
And as we all know, what often gets entirely pushed aside in the daily sturm und drang of our daily lives are the very important, but not urgent issues – the “yeah, yeah. I know we must deal with that…but, not now” priorities. These are generally longer term issues for firms; what comes to mind, as one example, is succession planning. By eliminating or offloading some less-critical responsibilities, you’ll have more time to devote to these highly consequential questions.
If you feel yourself getting sucked back in, we are reminded of this from Ike, who certainly had more than his fair share of (truly) dire situations to deal with:
What is important is seldom urgent & what is urgent is seldom important.
–Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States.
Visuals provided by Chris Hoffman at Faucethead.
