Source: Mindtools
Published: November 2016

Urgent and Important

Circulated: December 13, 2019

“I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. President, 1953 to 1961

Urgent means that a task requires immediate attention.
Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals.

Urgent & Important (Priority 1)

• Fire-fighting & customer escalations

• Broken business processes

• Feelings of stress and crises; can cause burnout

Not Urgent & Important (Priority 2)

• Relationship and team building

• Long-term, strategic planning

• Feelings of being under control, calmness, and planning

Urgent & Not Important (Priority 3)

• Unnecessarily checking email

• Coworker interruptions

• Feelings of interruptions

Not Urgent & Not Important (Priority 4)

• Unproductive meetings

• Scrolling through social media

• Feelings of distraction