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Money Women and Brains

Business Brain Marketing for Women

Your Priority Dilemma – Urgent or Important?

March 20, 2017 By Joyce Hansen 12 Comments

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Priority Dilemma

I bet you have a priority dilemma when it comes to your business. You’re not sure what you should do first – what’s urgent or what’s important?

 

The Priority Dilemma

 

This is an anxiety dilemma every entrepreneur faces. With limited time and attention, which items on your to-do list should you be focusing on?

 

More often than not, you find yourself having to choose between the urgent and the important. If you don’t do the urgent things, you’ll fall behind. If you don’t address the important things, you’ll accomplish nothing of significance.

 

I bet you’re hoping I’ll resolve your priority dilemma by recommending to take care of the urgent ones first. Then focus on the important ones.

 

Sorry, I can’t do that. And, here’s why.

 

The Brain Dilemma

 

Your brain has an inherent brain mechanism. When something becomes urgent, you either become reactive and respond (fight) or ignore and procrastinate (flee).

 

When something is important, your brain is attracted and wants to focus on it. You become mentally engaged because there’s value, stimulation, creativity, or purpose in what ‘s of interest.

 

Both what’s urgent and what’s important are equally vying for your brain’s time, attention and mental energy.

 

How do successful entrepreneurs resolve the priority dilemma?

 

The most successful solution is a quadrant or matrix decision diagram. Each of the 4 areas designates a relationship between Important and Urgent.

priority dilemma
Credit: Image: Eisenhower Decision Matrix http://www.jamesattorneymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chart.png

 

 

The original decision matrix is credited to Dwight D. Eisenhower, former US President, General and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II.

 

Eisenhower summarizes his decision matrix succinctly as “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

 

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important. Click To Tweet

 

It’s a success model with variations that business leaders Stephen Covey in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and David Allen in Getting Things Done promote.

 

This matrix design is normally a quick way to sort through tasks. However, smart business leaders also use it clarify their priorities.

 

Important Not Urgent – priorities here are not time-sensitive but do involve being proactive in dealing with change.

  • Meeting goals
  • Improving systems
  • Planning strategies
  • Defining core values
  • Making better decisions
  • Creating end results

 

Not Important Urgent – priorities here are reactive and crisis based. They pop up continuously and by necessity are time-sensitive.

  • Respond to a fast approaching deadline
  • Deal with unanticipated circumstances or problems
  • Interrupted by the demands of others to respond to their urgent priorities
  • Stop to answer significant calls, emails or requests 

 

Not Important Not Urgent – priorities that “feel good.”They don’t necessarily advance business as much as time spent focused on a specific priority.

  • Be on every social media platform
  • Respond to every media comment made
  • Have to incorporate the latest shiny object offer
  • Want to have comprehensive media exposure –  blog, video, podcast, webinar, e-book, reports, free offers etc.

 

Important Urgent – priorities that make an ultimate difference  

  • Impact your overall success in a shorter amount of time
  • Leverage your business to the next level with deadlines
  • Minimize potential problems from escalating into crisis mode
  • Indicate where to focus your time and energy for best results

 

Here’s a quick example: Cathy is an online marketer who has been working on her first affiliate product launch. Here’s a simple version of what her Eisenhower Decision Matrix might look like.

 

Important Not Urgent — Goal to have an affiliate product ready in the next six months

Not Important Urgent — Stop to address inquiries from previously contacted affiliate marketers

Not Important Not Urgent — Need to start planning for the next affiliate product

Important Urgent — Complete a series of smaller goals with a weekly deadline.

 

Priority Dilemma Solved in Four Steps

 

First, have some form of a business planner to help organize a to-do list.

Second, decide which items should be important priorities.

Third, know that urgent priorities will occur demanding immediate action.

Fourth, use the decision matrix to clarify your priorities. Some will be easy to schedule, while others will require a certain amount of motivation to kick into action mode. 

 

The value of a decision matrix is that it —

  • allows you to take an important priority and treat it as a meaningful urgent priority.
  • gives your brain time, attention, and mental energy to focus on your important and urgent priority.
  • lets urgent priorities wait to be addressed during breaks in your schedule.
  • provides for your other important priorities to have a greater chance of completion.
  • puts in place an important and urgent priority system.
  • frees up any anxiety about having a priority dilemma over what’s important or urgent.

 

What does your priority list look like?

 

Are there still some priorities waiting for you to take action on?

 

Resources:

https://metabroadcast.com/blog/the-difference-between-urgent-and-important-things

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s293/res/b254ce25-88e5-4535-842a-6e474aeabe05

http://lifehacker.com/5792244/learn-the-difference-between-urgent-and-important-by-acting-instead-of-reacting

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/10/23/eisenhower-decision-matrix/

Image Credit: http://www.jamesattorneymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chart.png; Pixabay 1714375

 

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Filed Under: Business success Tagged With: Business Productivity, Priorities

Comments

  1. Kristen Wilson says

    March 23, 2017 at 9:41 PM

    I have to go through these steps on a regular basss… because I have a tendency to get easily distracted for sure! thank you for super tips!

    Reply
  2. Beverley Golden says

    March 23, 2017 at 3:20 PM

    A lot of the things that occur to me as being ‘urgent’ often involve another person and my challenge is engaging that other person so they see the same urgency that I see with the issue. I love this matrix as a guide for self-directed work or projects, as it could be helpful to sort through which ones to proceed with first. Thanks for the great visual, Joyce. It really sorts out the urgent vs. the important and where they collide!

    Reply
  3. Candess says

    March 23, 2017 at 12:10 PM

    Fantastic way to sort out what is important and not so much. I use reminders in my calendar to help me with the urgent and most important items. I also store a lot of information in workflowy.com. For instance a reminder might say “Check (client’s name) order in Infusionsoft. Then I also have a List in Workflowy called Infusionsoft where I can do all the tasks related to that program at the same time. As busy as I am, I can’t afford to be disorganized!

    Reply
    • Joyce Hansen says

      March 23, 2017 at 2:35 PM

      That’s a good way to describe it Candess, as being too busy to be disorganized. Having a system in place that functions to take care of the routine important things saves a lot of time and energy. I’ve heard good things about workflowry.com. I’ll have to take a closer look. Thanks for recommending it.

      Reply
  4. Apolline Adiju says

    March 23, 2017 at 6:51 AM

    Wow, I love your explanations about it all. To be honest, most of the important things are not urgent and vice versa. I guess the best way out is getting a business planner as you mentioned. Thanks for the tips.

    Reply
    • Joyce Hansen says

      March 23, 2017 at 2:38 PM

      Business planners are good for those who like to write things down, but there’s also some good digital options like Evernote. Candess Campbell recommends workflowy.com. Find what you feel most comfortable with. It’s a big help as your business starts to take off big time.

      Reply
  5. Tamuria says

    March 22, 2017 at 3:56 PM

    “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important” – so true. Our brains really are attracted to the creativity and stimulation of the important, sometimes to the point of wanting to ignore the urgent. The decision matrix is a great way to solve this, Joyce. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Joyce Hansen says

      March 23, 2017 at 2:54 PM

      Thanks for your supporting comment Tami. I think we just get so caught up in life that important and urgent override one another. The decision matrix lets us step back as see where we really want to spend our time.

      Reply
  6. Rachel Lavern says

    March 22, 2017 at 1:26 PM

    You are right Joyce. So many entrepreneurs are not aware of the steps they need to take to realize their business priorities so they can achieve great results. They cannot define the key priorities that will get them the revenue results they need. They are overwhelmed and don’t focus on the priorities that will move their business forward.

    Reply
    • Joyce Hansen says

      March 23, 2017 at 3:00 PM

      Thanks, Rachel for seeing it from the business perspective. I think the focus has been on setting and meeting goals for so long, those in business think their goals are their priorities. That’s not to say a goal itself can’t be a priority. But rather, that there may be other priorities that should be attended to first, which in turn may make a goal easier to achieve.

      Reply
  7. Susan Mary Malone says

    March 22, 2017 at 12:22 PM

    I love this decision matrix! What a great (and visual) way to sort through priorities. You always give such useful tools, Joyce! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Joyce Hansen says

      March 23, 2017 at 3:08 PM

      A visual of the matrix diagram certainly makes it easier to understand!

      Reply

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