What Is
Important Is Seldom Urgent and What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important. – Dwight D.
Eisenhower
As I stated in last week’s Tip, I was headed to Washington,
DC for visits on Capitol Hill. I love
being on The Hill, talking with Congressional leaders and meeting new people! It was a great trip and after my last meeting
that I did alone, I met up with my boss and was so proud of how the meeting
went. I said to him, “I know I have been
doing this for over 3 years, but I just had a great meeting and I am stoked!” He laughed….
During those trips, I know that my life will be extremely busy. Emails, thank you notes, follow up emails,
compliance tasks, magazines to read were waiting to be dealt with when I got
home Friday afternoon. Taking my own
advice from last week, I enjoyed a weekend of shopping, sitting by the pool and
finishing a great inspiring book. On
Monday morning, I had 20+ tasks to complete.
What did I do?
I looked to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was an amazing organizer when he was a five-star
general, commander of the Allied Forces during World War II in Europe and the
34th President of the United States.
When making decisions about tasks to complete, he used The Eisenhower
Box. He would start by asking himself “Is
the Task Important?” and if “yes” his second question was “Is It Urgent?” He would then review the below box to help
him determine when he needed to complete the task.
For me, I took my task list, reviewed each item and placed
it in the appropriate box. The Urgent
Tasks demanded my attention Monday morning and Important Tasks were put on my
calendar to accomplish when I needed to.
Now the goal is just to continue reviewing the box and staying focused
to complete the tasks!
As we are all amazing ladies fulfilling our purposes in
life, I would challenge you to review The Eisenhower Box and your personal and
professional to-do lists. Where do each
of those tasks fall into the box? You
may discover that you can remove some items if they are Not Urgent and Not
Important!
To Learn More:
Loving the job!
I am printing this NOW. I have been told by my new boss I need to delegate more. The major problem is I don't have anyone to delegate things to. On the other hand my job is filled with folks who always think their email/call/text/ etc is an emergency and the most important thing I could possibly be doing.
ReplyDelete