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The Difference Between the Important, the Urgent and the Unnecessary
By Carol Halsey
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The Difference Between The Important, The Urgent And The Unnecessary
Let's assume that you have a list of all the tasks that are your responsibility to take action on. This would include phone calls to be made, letters to be written, orders to be processed, projects to be undertaken and completed, etc. This may very well be quite a long list. This is your master list.
Recognize the difference between the urgent, the important and the unnecessary. A master list with 40, 50 or more tasks itemized, may have items that have been on there for a long time. If the task hasn't been acted on by now, do you need to do it at all? Could someone else do it for you? Maybe it is just time to cross it off. It will come up again later if and when it is really important.
Did you ever stop to think that there are times when the most urgent tasks are not necessarily the most important, at the moment? How did they become urgent? Maybe they were put off for so long that the deadline is now. By prioritizing and planning, this can usually be avoided.
Also, recognize the difference between "must do's" and "should do's." With should do's, we have a tendency of heaping responsibilities on ourselves - "I should attend that meeting, I should participate on that business committee." Learn to say "no" sometimes. The way you use your time reflects the way you live your life. Life is like a buffet line - our plates fill up sooner than we realize.
Learn to say "no" to unnecessary activities that will not meet your goals or get you where you want to go. Also, decide on one activity that is important to you, your career, your life, and table others for another time. You can do them all, but not necessarily all at the same time.
©2002 Carol Halsey
Carol Halsey is Founder and President of Business Organizing Solutions. She is a professional organizer, consultant, speaker, and author of "93 Organizing Tips to Simplify Your Work Day." You can get this booklet and articles, ideas on how to get 14 hours work out of an 8 hour day, simply by visiting her web site: http://www.PilesToFiles.com.
Subscribe to her free organizing newsletter, “Organizing Ideas,” sent twice a month.
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