Fighting The Daily Battle Of “Importance VS URGENCY” … “IVU”

The daily question for most of us is the same: How do I keep the “fires” that always occur from getting in the way of my most important work?

One thing is certain: There will always be fires tugging at your sleeve, and screaming for your attention on a daily basis. The question is, how do I keep from becoming a “Business Firefighter”, someone that has great abilities, experience, and work ethic, but wastes them on the latest “emergency”… and is constantly behind on important tasks?

Research clearly shows that we live in a culture of “Now Addiction”, where most of us feel we need to “Check our EM now, take every call now, get the info now, Text Message now, interrupt scheduled deep work now, etc.”. However, this “urgency addiction” is the enemy of getting important work done. Work that is essential to the success of a business, a team, an individual or a career.

Two actions you can take to help shift from the “urgency addiction” to focusing more on your most important tasks/work include:

1) Stop assuming every urgent call or emergency request is important… and must be acting on immediately

2) Stop allowing yourself to be interrupted when you’re doing important, “Deep Work” that needs your focus and attention