Urgent vs. Important? Make the choice to use the well known parent and business circle concept of “a social media timeout. I’ve been hearing from many folks lately about valuable time wasted. They always note that they’ve emerged from one of the many daily trips down the rabbit hole of social media. Much of the criticism is pointed at Facebook where daily usage is over 1 billion people. This does appear to be the watering hole everybody stops at to take a daily drink. Some call it Facebook Fatigue. You emerge dissatisfied and find yourself diverted from your daily goals.
Now is the time
Now is the right time! Revisit the growing dilemma of dealing with Urgent vs. Important tasks in your day. Let’s start with an internet search (of course) of the phase “urgent vs. important.” I was surprised to see “Eisenhower Box” among the top offerings. Equally important is stilla ten year old Harvard Business Review article. But look up “Facebook sabbatical” or “Facebook timeout” and a massive variety of choices are offered up.
The Eisenhower Box was a wonderful representation of processing “inbound” demands on our time. This represents the “how” of time management skills and techniques in a world long vanished. Today, few people ever lift their faces up from the device that has become as addictive as opioids. This device (I hesitate to call it a phone) is where selfies become the default. The camera mode makes human beings become human doings, so be careful.
The addictive nature of these devices plays to the very human need to be acknowledged by others. This is the principle that most social media platforms exploit. Therefore it is important to explore the “why” of today’s dilemma of Urgent vs. Important
Seth Godin rightly points out that responding to Urgent makes us feel competent. We must reply to an email. We want to acknowledge another immediately upon seeing their post. So this easy action creates an echo chamber that eats your time. A single touch of “like” or “swipe” triumphantly meets the urgency head on.
Importance is value
But is this inbound missive important? Does it help create something of value? Doing important work takes time and continuous focus. Developing a drug to combat deadly disease takes years if not decades. Building an inclusive society means taking risks and standing out from everyone else. Don’t leave behind the poor, the elderly or the differently-abled.
Urgent
Urgent makes us feel competent. But try grabbing the important jobs instead. You shouldn’t be overshadowed by fear or uncertainty in outcome. Prove the time invested is valuable. We may not know for years if the path taken is the right one to a measurable success. Thomas Edison never stopped because of so called failure.
He was famously known for saying “I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work” on his lifelong way to creating 1,093 patented inventions. But equally important was his belief that “The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think.”
Think about why disruption in the marketplace is rewarded. Question today’s reliance on MVP (minimum viable product.). Don’t use it as excuse to build a concept company just to be acquired or flipped.
Make your focus a scalable startup that will deliver the creation of important jobs of the future. We are already facing self-driving vehicles and Ai driven Large Language Models. They will takeover many tasks providing predictably “correct” answers to our questions. And, as business and society moves forward, the most important questions will not be answerable by search.
Will you take the time to build the future? Take “Important” tasks and don’t let yourself be carried away by swiping thru devices that waste time.