Linktip: Getting Things Done (GTD): Just Say No to Urgent Unimportant Tasks

Coming from: How to Save the World

“You’re probably familiar with Covey’s urgent/important quadrants, shown in the graphic at right. Covey’s thesis is that we spend so much time on quadrant 3 matters (urgent but unimportant) that some quadrant 1 matters (urgent and important) may get neglected (since often they’re onerous and time-consuming), and most quadrant 2 matters (important but not urgent) get pushed down the priority list and never get done at all (until/unless they become urgent quadrant 1 matters, which quite often happens too late, like on our deathbeds).

One of the things I’ve done with my GTD list (see model below) to try to address this tendency, is to flag urgent items on my list in italics, and important items in bold (and quadrant 1 items in bold italics), and pledge to do at least one important (quadrant 1 or 2) ‘next action step’ every day. … Since my stress-induced disease hit me and woke me up, I’m not doing that any more. In fact, I’ve declared war on quadrant 3 (and 4) tasks: They don’t get put on the list at all. Every action on my (much shorter) GTD list is now bold quadrant 1 or 2 tasks. Most of the quadrant 3 tasks, it turned out, fell into one of these categories:

E-mails and voice-mails
Paperwork (including electronic administrivia like backups, site maintenance etc.)
Meetings (regularly-scheduled ones, and those you were foolish enough to agree to when you shouldn’t have)
Chores (stuff you hate doing, but have accepted as your responsibility, like committee activities)
Routines (stuff you do on a regular schedule, like exercising)
Impossible not to do these things, you say? I thought so too, until I realized the stress of dealing with ‘urgent’ tasks, and the disappointment of not getting to important (to me) ones, were making me miserable, and ultimately ill. How did I get rid of the urgent unimportant tasks? It was a three-step process:”

Digged for you by Productivity.Now.