Knowing what’s important and what’s not!
In 1954, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech to the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches – “I have two kinds of problems – the urgent ones and the important ones. The urgent ones are not important, and the important ones are never urgent.”
This Eisenhower Principle is said to be how he organised his workload and priorities. Eisenhower identified that great time management means being effective as well as efficient. In other words, we must spend our time doing things that are important and not just the things that seem to be urgent.
To do this for your life planning and goal-setting, we must understand the difference between what is urgent and what is important:
- Prioritise all actions that only lead you to achieve your vision and goals, whether these are professional or personal goals.
- Urgent actions demand your immediate attention. But these actions are usually associated with fulfilling someone else’s goals. Unfortunately, these are often the ones we tend to focus on that will not lead you to achieve your vision and goals.
Once we can determine the difference between important activities and those that are urgent, we can then overcome the natural tendency to focus on unimportant, urgent activities. We can consciously plan enough time to do the essential things that are impactful for our lives.