Brian Tracy Success - Separate the Urgent from the Important

This article is based on another fantastic Brian Tracy Podcast: “21 Great Ways To Double Your Productivity - Number 5.”

Everything you do throughout the day fits into one of four categories:

1. Urgent and Important Tasks

You have to complete these tasks immediately. These are in your face. These are things like phone calls and meetings. You can’t put them off without causing serious problems.

Most people spend all day long doing these types of tasks.

2. Important but NOT Urgent Tasks

According to Brian Tracy, completing these tasks will have the greatest possible long-term benefits in your life.

The tasks in this category include personal renewal, physical fitness and exercise, updating your skills, and spending time with your family.

Don’t put these tasks off for another day. If you want to change your life for the better, work on these now.

Believe me, if you don’t do them now, they’ll become urgent sooner or later. These are things like a term paper at work; or a report for your boss.

3. Urgent BUT NOT Important Tasks

The tasks in this category include telephone calls, coworkers dropping in, and conversations about TV programs and what you did last night.

Brian Tracy says that these tasks will have negative effects on your success. Don’t delude yourself into thinking this type of work is important work.

The opposite is in reality the truth. These tasks are great time-wasters. In fact, they’re often great killers of careers. Don’t work on tasks in this arena.

The greatest time wasters of all are those that are:

4. Neither Urgent NOR Important

Don’t spend any time on these tasks. They’ll produce no results for you. At work, don’t read the newspaper, don’t surf the internet, and don’t call home to chit-chat. You’ll be wasting your company’s money and your time.

To summarize…

Start with the Urgent AND Important Tasks. Then go to the Important BUT NOT Urgent Tasks. Remember to stay away from all non-important work.

Here’s the central question to ask yourself continually for each task: What are the likely enduring costs of doing this task?

When you answer this question, you’ll know what to work on.