“Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made out of.” –Benjamin Franklin
It is estimated that the average adult makes 35,000 conscious decisions a day, and many of those decisions are about how to use our time.[1] We each have access to the same 24 hours a day. Consciously or unconsciously, we make decisions about how to spend those minutes, and each small decision adds up to a life trajectory.
It’s important to be intentional and mindful about where we allocate our time. Every day, we face many tasks that clamor for our attention. The Eisenhower Decision Matrix defines them this way:
- Urgent and Important. These critical tasks can’t wait until next week: a broken arm, dirty laundry, providing services to clients, and daily operations in your business. If you don’t take care of these issues immediately, your personal and professional life will experience serious repercussions. These tasks often receive the highest priority.
- Important but not Urgent. You understand the importance of exercising, building relationships, writing your will, car maintenance, and keeping financial records, but there is no zinger if you don’t get them done today. These tasks get pushed aside because they’re not urgent. However, if we neglect these things forever, we will build regret.
- Urgent but not Important. When a “squeaky wheel” employee brings seemingly urgent complaints, step back and evaluate the relative importance of their concerns. If a colleague pressures you to complete a task, consider the priority of this request. While these items include pressure for immediacy, they are not actually very important.
- Not Urgent or Important. Surfing the web, endlessly scrolling through social media, and gossiping waste the precious time we’ve been given. They are not urgent or important, and can be eliminated.
Every day, you make decisions about what to prioritize. Your company’s credit card had been hacked, and you are on the phone with the bank, trying to resolve the issue. You’re put on hold for 15 minutes, but you have an important meeting that starts in 10 minutes. Will you disappoint the five people waiting to meet with you, or will you prioritize the apparent urgency of the credit card situation? Is there any harm in waiting until tomorrow to resolve the bank situation? How much do you value building trust and connection with the individuals in your meeting?
If we are honest, most of our time is spent putting out the fires of urgency. Like a tyrant, urgency dominates our days and controls our hours. We live a reactive life of fear because our life is always “on fire.” We’re always calling 911. We have no time to truly listen to ourselves, others, or our circumstances, because we’re always hearing alarms and sirens going off. Often, we avoid long-term proactive preventative measures because we feel like we have no time. We run out of time to build relationships, listen to our employees, create training videos, or plan for the future. Ironically, the more we neglect the proactive strategies that could prevent emergencies, the more emergencies we face.
On the flip side, when we prioritize proactive strategies, we minimize urgent emergencies that sap our strength and divert out focus. Building relationships with employees means we know their needs and have less “squeaky wheels.” Focusing on systems and training means we spend less time correcting urgent problems within the business. Building a “fire prevention plan” within our business takes time on the front end, but saves time down the road. We spend less time putting out fires and more time doing the things that really matter.
When we focus on the urgent, we sacrifice long term goals for short term gain. On the other hand, a proactive life schedules time to reflect on the long term, plan for the future, and renew the mind. Healthy practices such as restorative exercise, life-giving food, deep sleep, and healthy physical touch can strengthen our lives and build our long-term infrastructure. They prepare us to face the unavoidable emergencies of life. A proactive life makes time for what is important, while not neglecting the urgent.
As humans, we’re hard-wired to get more of whatever we are focusing on. When we focus only on the urgent, we get more emergencies. But when we focus on long-term stability, we get more long-term stability. This approach may be counterintuitive, but it works. Letting go of urgent battles is the way to win the war. When we fine-tune our schedules, balancing urgent and important, our lives and businesses will flourish.
[1] “How Many Daily Decisions Do We Make?” UNC TV, Last modified Feb 7, 2018, Accessed July 23, 2021, http://science.unctv.org/content/reportersblog/choices
