{"id":15,"date":"2016-07-26T09:29:33","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T13:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/?p=15"},"modified":"2016-07-26T09:30:57","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T13:30:57","slug":"important-but-not-urgent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/productivity\/important-but-not-urgent\/","title":{"rendered":"Important, But Not Urgent"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is important is not urgent, and what is urgent is rarely important. – Dwight D. Eisenhower<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Eisenhower Decision Matrix<\/p><\/div>\n

Take a minute to think about the typical activities that make up your day. \u00a0Where would each one fit on the matrix above? \u00a0A lot of us find ourselves spending a lot of our time working on things that are coming at us. \u00a0They hit our inbox and we feel the pull to respond and deal with them\u00a0right away. \u00a0Or we hear the phone ring and allow that to pull us away for an important report we are working on. \u00a0The result is that our most important tasks, the \u00a0work that would advance our work in ways that are significant and strategic, often get pushed aside in favor of putting out small fires.<\/p>\n

When you look at the grid above, does it provide you with a little more perspective? \u00a0Does it make you more motivated to focus on the tasks that are most important, even if they are not urgent? \u00a0That’s the hope!<\/p>\n

Here’s my challenge to you. \u00a0Today, for just 30 minutes, work without allowing any interruptions on a task that is important but not urgent. \u00a0For that period of time, practice not looking at your email or picking up your phone. \u00a0If you have\u00a0a door, shut it. \u00a0If there are other distractions, find a way to minimize them. \u00a0 \u00a0Focus your attention entirely on something that is important but not urgent.<\/p>\n

You’ll be providing yourself with leadership, taking charge of your time, taking aim at a vision. \u00a0After taking this cue from Eisenhower, perhaps you’ll even start to feel presidential<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is important is not urgent, and what is urgent is rarely important. – Dwight D. Eisenhower   Take a minute to think about the typical activities that make up your day. \u00a0Where would each one fit on the matrix … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":807,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-productivity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/807"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/krt4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}