97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 79. Important, but Not Urgent

Alex Miller

THE PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY CLASSIC The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey (Free Press), categorizes activities along a vertical axis, importance, and a horizontal axis, urgency. We now have four possible combinations:

1. Important and Urgent: Velociraptor^[25] attack.

2. Important, but Not Urgent: Preparing future product strategy; reworking a problematic part of the product.

3. Not Important, but Urgent: Neighbor calling to borrow some sugar.

4. Not Important, and Not Urgent: YouTube; surfing the Web.

Let's examine how to maximize our effectiveness.

Consider the Not Important, Not Urgent tasks (#4) first. Most of these activities (the ones you might categorize as "slacking off ") can simply be dropped. These activities are, by definition, not important (so why are you doing them?) and not urgent (so they can surely wait). If category 4 activities are mandated by your company, you should be asking your boss why you must do them. Smart managers don't want people doing unimportant work.

We should also strive to reduce the occurrence of Not Important, but Urgent activities (#3). One technique is to ask the source of the event to contact you in a way that lets you deal with the event at a time of your choosing. Another technique is to alter your environment to avoid being interrupted. Phone calls and email are often treated as urgent, regardless ...