Quickly Prioritise Your Tasks By Urgency And Importance

I've just set up a list for each of these categories in Google Tasks - we'll see how it goes!

djnrempel

UI = Your house is one fire

UNI = Somebody else's house is one fire

@an2an: That's the whole point. People operate as if their urgent tasks are the most important ones.

Suppose you must use a check to pay both a parking ticket and a gas bill, but you only have one check left until next week. The parking ticket is due today, and there's a $1 late fee. The gas bill is due tomorrow, but there's a $10 late fee.

Paying the ticket is more urgent, but paying the bill is more important.

I have 7 Habits, but have never been able to get all the way through. On the other hand, I have a basic understanding as I have used the FranklinCovey Day Planner system since 1985.

The company was called The Franklin Institute, then changed its name to FranklinQuest when they went public, and finally to FranklinCovey when they merged with The Covey Leadership Center in the late 90's early 2000's.

Once I finishe my current read (Texas, James A. Michener - only 400+ pages to go) I think reading the 7 habits would be a good idea. I also have First things first which Stephen Covey wrote.

Runnin-Ute

@Runnin-Ute: Thank you for the clarification. In the context I was thinking, Urgent = Important, whereas one refers to time, the other actual goal.

@an2an:
The easiest way to understand the U/NU axis is to ask: does this task have a deadline (or how difficult/easy is it to move that deadline).
Personally I have found that important tasks are not always best done quickly, some are best delayed to allow external factors to stablise (c.f.
The Wally Period), or are best tackled gradually to allow time for consideration.
Example NUI: Having children - this may be really important to you, but you're best not to rush into anything this weekend ;-)
Example UNI: Visiting Mr T at the mall.

Tom Walker

@an2an: A task that's important does need to get done, but not necessarily Right Now This Minute. To take one recent example from our household, in preparing for company it's certainly important to clean the cat box, but it's much more important to get the living room cleaned up, because that's what the guests will see first. And it's urgent to clean up where the cat urped on the rug by the front door. :)

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People should definitely be on a Life Hacker's book shelf--especially if they are GTD fans. GTD tells you how to get things done--mostly runway level. David Allan doesn't spend much time on what he calls high altitude planning. That's precisely the focus of Seven Habits. Seven Habits helps you decide *what* to do and GTD helps you learn *how* to do it.

auctoris

to really understand the system and the approach you should read the book, I'm sure you can pick it up pretty cheap these days.

I had to read it and then go through seminars about the topic at my work, and although I like to pick and choose the aspects that I want to use, I would say that it is overall pretty useful.

The idea (to my interpretation) is to give you a framework to use to balance your work and personal life and to get the most important tasks done in the time that they need to be done.

Some key principals are:

-effectiveness is more important than efficiency
-putting first things first
- managing the "big stones" and letting the "small stones" fall into place.

it is worth a read.

One of the reasons Stephen Covey discusses urgency and importance is that so many people don't see a distinction. They don't understand how something can be important but not urgent. In his words, it's a "paradigm shift" once you get it.

From _Seven Habits of Highly Effective People_:

"As you see, the two factors that define an activity are urgent and important. Urgent means it requires immediate attention. It's "Now!" Urgent things act on us. A ringing phone is urgent. Most people can't stand the thought of just allowing the phone to ring. You could spend hours preparing materials, you could get all dressed up and travel to a person's office to discuss a particular issue, but if the phone were to ring while you were there, it would generally take precedence over your personal visit. . . .

"Urgent matters are usually visible. They press on us; they insist on action. They're often popular with others. They're usually right in front of us. And often they are pleasant, easy, fun to do. But so often they are unimportant!

"Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results. If something is important, it contributes to your mission, your values, your high priority goals. We react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity. We must act to seize opportunity, to make things happen. If we don't practice Habit 2 [begin with the end in mind], if we don't have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent."

auctoris

I was just watching Randy Pausch's time management lecture and he does a good job of explaining this system. You can find it on u*Tube.

@Runnin-Ute: Excellent clarification. I'd hate for people to totally ignore this concept simply because they don't understand that urgent refers to deadlines, and important refers to how much it relates to overall goals/mission/etc.

This formula is a good one to use to help prevent burnout!

There is a difference. A pretty good explanation is here: [www.time-management-basics.com]

Not all things we need to do on a given day is important, nor are all things urgent, when prioritizing it is best to assign a higher priority to the items that are Urgent/important then not urgent/important before any item that can be labelled urgent/not important or not urgent/not important.

Urgent DOES NOT equal important. It may seem like it but it doesn't.

Runnin-Ute

That was the first question that came to mind as well. The differentiation between how one can be urgent, but not important...

That is an interesting way of looking at tasks.
I have always been partial to the two circle system:
1. Big circle of things that are not important and you can't control.
2. Small circle of the important, controllable items.

The problem is identifying those things.

wasabiventures

This actually first appeared in the book "First Things First", of which Covey was contributor.
It breaks out this way:
UI: Pressing matters/Criss/fire-fighting/deadline drive
NUI: Prevention/relationship Bldg/planning/preparation/implementing systems/professional knowledge
UNI: Interruptions/some calls/email/some reports/meetings/unprepared meetings/popular activities
NUNI:Trivia/Busy work/time wasters/unproductive activity/everything else

I use it a lot!

dltinvestor

Something that is "Important" or "Not Important" in 7 Habits has to do with whether the task is part of your long-term goals. So UNI would mean a lot of "Management by Crisis" trivia.

nightbirdsf

@winshape: I think an appropriate UNI would be like entering a contest, it has a deadline, but do you really need the latest computer from alienware?

Lucky-JJ

GUI= Greatly Urgent/Important (sorry for the comp pun, couldn't resist)

Lucky-JJ

Steven Covey makes a point of telling us to focus on the NUI tasks. Fill those in your calendar first, then go back and do the UI tasks in the unblocked times. Otherwise, you either never get to the NUIs, or they turn into UIs.

ShaheenaAte

UI = Emergency reboot of your server

NUI = defragging your hard drive

NUNI = changing your background picture

UNI = Upgrading your video card to play Crysis? Yeah...I can't figure this one either.

winshape

Anyone care to explain?

A task that is important has to be done, and it's always best to get it done quickly, because it needs to be.

An urgent task is urgent, meaning it needs to be done quickly, deeming it important, what is the difference?

Uh, this seems overly complex to me. I've been using a priority system for 15 years.

0 - 5.

There can only be a single "0" task at a time. It is worked before anything else period. "5" tasks may never be done.

Sorting by priority is easy with this method if you use a spreadsheet or text file for task lists.

I can see where my number system may seem complex to more verbally inclined people.

TheFu

And the image makes a great Wallpaper for my iPod Touch. Kind of a nag whenever I turn it on. I NEED those kinds of things to keep me focused!

Damn...now I really have no excuse not to get started on that paper due in two weeks.

I believe I've seen it suggested that Eisenhower used this method when he was president; I don't recall the reference though.

VirginiaAsteria

I used this system at my last job - where I needed to maintain a larger list of things to do. It worked great. I had a copy of a similar image hanging on my wall, when a new todo item would come in I would always look at the image, and think where that item belonged, then it would go on my todo list.

I've fallen out of the habit of using this system - I think it's time to get back into it. Thanks for the nudge.

@Lucky-JJ: The answer is always "yes please, can I have two?"

bodar

I use this method for e-mails. Coupled with custom Outlook dashboard page and a rule set most of my mails are automagically categorized.

See how it works on [www.flickr.com]

valexeev

I would recommend checking out [www.Gtdagenda.com] for an online GTD manager with prioritization feature.

dannielo

UI: Read Gizmodo!!!
What, I get bored easily...

taipan_snake