Transcript:
We would all love to be people who really get big things done. But so much of our day is spent procrastinating and avoiding the work we really need to do, and we are so busy doing things we really don’t need to do. By the end of the day we are left wondering whether we really made progress or not. So today I want to introduce a really great tool for discerning the difference between work that is urgent and work that is important.
My name is Shaun McMillan, and this is the Best Class Ever.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was a 5 star general during World War 2 and later became the 34th president of the United States. Also known as Ike, he had a reputation for being able to get things done. And one of the tools he used on a daily basis was the Eisenhower decision matrix.
This is a simple chart with four quadrants. You can see the chart on the website at www.BestClassEver.org. The key aspect of this chart is it divides all tasks based on two different criteria. How urgent is this task and how critical is this task?
Typically we lend our attention to everything that seems urgent. When someone screams at you, complains about you, suddenly makes a special request, or writes you an email warning that you are in trouble, we will typically drop everything and try to address it. These are urgent tasks.
Existential Problems
But these are very different from critical tasks. The most critical tasks are those that present existential problems. Problems that if you fail to deal with them could pose a threat to your existence. Philosophical problems, what happens after you die, managing relationships with those that care about you so you don’t end up in divorce. These are existential problems. They are real and they are critical, but they are also the easiest to postpone.
They are also often difficult to solve, and frustrating to think about so what do we do? We postpone, make ourselves busy with urgent tasks that can easily be solved, and at the end of the day we are too tired to really address the most important problems of life.
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a way to deal with this problem. You take all of your problems or tasks, and divide them into one of these 4 categories.
First Category: Urgent Important tasks
These are the tasks that are both URGENT & IMPORTANT. And there is only one way to deal with them. Do them right now, immediately.
An example of this would be a flat tire. You have pretty much no choice but to deal with it immediately. But most tasks do not fall into this category.
Second Category: Urgent Non-Important tasks
These are the special requests that come to you because people trust you to get them done, or things you would like to do but don’t need to do. It could be tasks that fall on you because someone else has failed to take responsibility. Someone is complaining about the neglect, and as they say, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
If you are an administrator like Ike was, or have a team of people to work with, there is a simple solution to these tasks. Find someone to do it for you. These are tasks that are not important so they should not be your priority. Do not give them more attention than they deserve.
Third Category: Non-Urgent Non-Important tasks
There is an obvious solution to these tasks. Simply eliminate them altogether. No one is going to care if you completely neglect to do these things. They are not worth the anxiety they’ll induce by even being on your list of priorities so mark them off your list as done even if you don’t do them.
Fourth Category: Non-Urgent Important tasks
Now this is where the chart gets interesting. This is what will give you an edge on your competition and help you to solve the real problems. The ones everyone else is failing to deal with. These are the issues that everyone procrastinates on, that everyone avoids, the ones that prick our conscience, and nag at us in small but constant ways. This is the unaddressed elephant in the room, the monster under your bed, and dragon of chaos lurking in the shadows and holding your hopes and dreams hostage.
These are things you know that you have to do, but you don’t have to do them right now. You can postpone the problem, but not indefinitely. So what is the solution?
Schedule a time to work on Non-Urgent Critical problems
Of course we need to deal with urgent critical problems first. But once you are out of crisis mode, you need to schedule a time to deal with non-urgent critical problems. Make this your absolute top priority. This is what will make you more effective than everyone else. This is what will make your hopes and dreams into reality. Again, the solution is really simple. Just open up your calendar app and schedule a time to deal with this task. Not a reminder, but an actual block of time that you will commit to dealing with this issue and nothing else.
Non-urgent critical problems might not be problems you can deal with all at once. If that’s the case then schedule some time to deal with it each day. And give it your best time of day, not the worst. Deal with it in the morning after you’ve had coffee and breakfast. Get yourself into a good mood before that scheduled time comes. Maybe work on it just before going to bed so you can dream up creative solutions in your sleep.
Break Big Hard Problems up Into Small Easy problems
Break big problems up into smaller problems and schedule times to deal with each smaller task individually. Change that big hard problem into simple easy problems. Maybe cleaning the whole house is too intimidating. That’s ok, just clean one room this morning. Another room tomorrow morning. By the end of the week, the whole house will be clean and livable.
Never forget the power of doing things on a daily basis.
Never forget the power of doing things on a daily basis. Even if you do only a small amount everyday you can accomplish far more than exerting a lot of effort all at once. For more on this be sure to look at the previous lessons on the Matthew Principle: How to Work Less & Achieve more, and the Serenity of the Stoics in which we address the power of setting small daily goals.
You can find this and more at www.BestClassEver.org
