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The most urgent decisions are rarely the most important ones. Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower was a distinguished 5 star general during the Second World War. He became the 34th President of the USA in 1953.
He was never a businessman, but the time management system that he devised and used throughout his career is still used extensively today.
In a speech to the World Council of Churches in 1954, he said, that as a soldier and as a president, he was constantly faced with two types of problems. “The urgent and the important”. To be effective and efficient time has to be controlled. Too many people spend their time dealing with ‘situations’ and ‘crises’ and quickly ‘burn out.’
Eisenhower lived by the principle that “the urgent is rarely important, and the important rarely urgent”. Excessive inability to distinguish between the two leads to demotivation and underachievement.
His strategy was somewhat more sophisticated than what follows, but the essentials that he highlighted are listed below
Important Activities
Have an outcome that allows YOU to achieve YOUR goals – personal or professional
Urgent and Important Activities
Demand immediate attention and allows SOMEONE ELSE to achieve THEIR goal. These are the ones that usually get the most attention as not responding has immediate consequences.
Important and Non Urgent Activities
Allows for the allocation of an end date and some strategic forward planning
Unimportant and Urgent Activities
Meetings, interruptions, most of which can be delegated
Non Urgent and Non Important
Are trivial matters or time wasters.
The end goal is always to filter out ‘the noise‘ from your decisions and concentrate only on what really matters. Eisenhower would assign every activity to one of these groups.
Eisenhower was an excellent exponent of this system. Both as an army and political leader he could sustain his productivity for not just weeks and months, but for many years.
If time management is something you struggle with, fill in the contact form. We’ll talk about your situation and figure out how I can help you filter out ‘the noise!’