The Eisenhower Principle

In my last 2 BLog-posts I wrote about the  A-B-C analysis  which helps you organizing your decision based issues at work and in life.  It´s an aid to help prioritizing your daily tasks and to-do´s to make you work towards your goals, in time.  It also keeps you on track!

The Eisenhower method or Eisenhower principle is an extra aid to help within those priorities:  it helps you sharpening your mind in terms of the single importance and urgency of those tasks.

Let´s find out the difference between urgency and importance and let me tell you what Wikipedia says:

URGENCY =
necessity to short-termly DO or finish something of an urgent matter.  It carries a timely matter as its headline or its priority is scheduled on time.  Urgency is focussed on the future and could include to help people, to turn danger away or to secure items or values.

IMPORTANCE =
is the profoundly meaning of an action (or an item).  It means it outweighs something else.  Importance means that it´s urgency outweighs the importance of something else which you have ot do or to finish.  It could be more important to do than working on a C-Task.

Importance the first step to get into this high category of  Special  ATTENTION!  But importance stays on the basis of it.  Urgency steps next to importance but then steps UP above the importance because it´s more relevant than the important task itself!

>>  Urgency is the so called upgrade of importance!

You may ask yourself now:  “how can I measure between importance and urgency?”
Now think of the RISK factors again!
The item which is of more danger today or tomorrow carries the urgency while everything else which has no risk factor yet stays on the importance-level.

You may want to read my blog-post from June about risk: RISK

Let me give you an example:
To prepare for an exam or a meeting with your client, you have to do some “tasks” within the next weeks.  If you schedule the single steps to be best prepared until the DATE “x”  in your calendar and you follow those steps, they are all  IMPORTANT  for you to do.

The minute or day you can´t go after it and time shortens and you start missing some relevant preparation for the date “x”, things will become URGENT to do!  They are urgent now because you have to meet your goal on a fix date.
That means the day you recognize that you´re late you have to re-prioritize your schedule, therefore use the  A-B-C analysis as an aid!  You will immediately re-type your to-do´s in your calendar to make sure to meet the sudden urgent GOAL.  The important things will now wait a little longer because yet you won´t RISK them.

Using the Eisenhower principle trains you to become a good planner!
It might also keep you busy with corrections…..

 

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –