Effectiveness necessarily differentiates between importance and urgency

Tasks that are important do not always inherently feel urgent. By contrast, some tasks that feel terribly urgent are not important. An effective means of differentiating between the two is through the use of a 2-axis chart (made popular by American president Dwight D. Eisenhower):

Important Tasks (top half of the diagram):

1. 🟢 DO (Important + Urgent) – The tasks in the top left quadrant are the highest priority and should be done immediately, as the importance of the task is correlated to its urgency.
2. 🟡 DECIDE (Important + Not Urgent) – The next most important quadrant is the top right, where tasks are important, but they do not feel urgent. It is important to ensure these are scheduled so that they get completed in a timely manner.

Unimportant Tasks (bottom half of the diagram):

3. 🔵 DELEGATE (Not Important + Urgent) – Tasks that feel urgent, but are not particularly important are ideal candidates for outsourcing to others. Ex: Tasks at a job that need to get done, but not necessarily by you.
4. ⚫️ DELETE (Not Important + Not Urgent) – Tasks in this quadrant are merely open loops unnecessarily taking up cognitive space and should be eliminated immediately.

#effectiveness

See also:

• Perception is Reality
• Frightening and dangerous are two different things