Last week my wife and I traveled out of town for a day full of medical appointments. The day before, I nailed down a departure time of 2.5 hours before we needed to arrive. In thinking through this decision, there were warring considerations of A) wanting to get more sleep and B) the desire to arrive, stress free, on time. 

Almost every moment of every day, you and I are faced with conflicting decisions; should we make a short-term decision that brings immediate benefit, or should we defer immediate gratification and make a better long-term decision. Which is better?

Important vs. Urgent

As Ben Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. This idea definitely rings true. It is much better to think long term, get out in front of things, and keep problems far away. But as you and I well know, this is not always possible. Time sensitive issues constantly pop up, and they often derail our ability to invest in the needed “ounces of prevention”. Another way to say all of this is that at times we can and should invest in the important (prevention), and at other times in the urgent (cure). Here are a few examples:

-You run a business and are working to put together marketing material (important), but a customer calls with an issue that they need resolved (urgent).

-You are a parent who is trying to plan a fun family trip to Disney, but your child keeps interrupting asking you to come play. 

-You want to go to the gym to exercise during lunch, but you are really hungry after skipping breakfast. 

A million more examples could be shared, but you get the idea.

5 Tips

Often, it can be hard to distinguish whether to choose the important or the urgent option. Here are a few helpful tips:

1. For the average person, the urgent often drowns out the important. Work extra hard to build up some margin so that you have the ability to CHOOSE which one to spend time on. Sometimes you just have to choose the important a few times in a row in order to get your head back above water.
2. Be very honest about which one you are choosing at any point in time, and why. Don’t lie to yourself or pretend that one is the other when it’s not. Sometimes it’s right to choose the urgent over the important…so again, be clear about the fact that this is what you are doing and how it is a good decision in this instance. 
3. Be aware of the truth that the important will at some point become urgent. Try to go ahead and invest in the prevention so that things do not escalate to a point that requires a substantial cure. 
4. When possible, delegate urgent things to others so that you can invest the needed time on the important. Sometimes others can handle only the urgent, but you can handle both. Invest your time in things that only you can handle that will reap a long term benefit for everyone.  
5. Be dogged about saying no to things, unless they are a resounding YES for you, your values, and your priorities. At times we tend to overcommit to things that we should not be involved with, and then these eliminate our ability to choose the important when it is necessary.

In Closing

Do you have a robust understanding of the difference between the important and the urgent? In what areas of life are you overinvesting in the I or the U? What shifts might need to be made to achieve better balance?