While reading O Mag's October issue, I came across the popular urgent/important matrix developed by Stephen Covey Sr. (the dad of Stephen Covey, Jr. - ok, I actually thought there was only 1 Stephen Covey, the author!).
The matrix allows you to categorize activities based on urgency and importance.
There's no doubt that we need to prioritize tasks on Quadrant 1 (urgent/important) the most while Quadrant 4 the least (not urgent/not important). But oftentimes, the mistake is prioritizing things in Quadrant 3 (urgent/not important) over Quadrant 2 (important, not urgent). As Randy Pausch shared in one of his speeches (before his famous "Last Lecture" speech), we should spend time on activities that are more important even if they don't seem critical. Come to think of it, the things that are in Quadrant 2 are usually the things that we really want to do in life but since there aren't any pressing deadlines, we end up prioritizing Quadrant 3 tasks where we are fooled by the urgency of unimportant tasks (e.g. listening to a demanding colleague who endlessly whines). So while there are things that we really HAVE to do (Quadrant 1), let's make sure to also do the things that we WANT to do (Quadrant 2), otherwise, we're taking out the fun out of life:)
