The Curse Of The Eternally Urgent

Ignoring secondarily important actions and projects because you are too busy and concerned with urgent things fosters continual crisis management. It never self-corrects; it self-perpetuates. Where do fires and crises come from? Usually from not-so-urgent things that people ignore because they are distracted by the crises of the moment. Then, ignored, they cause the next fires and crises.

For example, ignoring worn tires because they're not yet urgent sets up the likelihood of a blowout. Whatever else was lined up for later has now become a candidate for crisis because changing the tire has become your very next appointment. And by the way, does that spare have air? It's not urgent, but it will take less than two minutes to check, next time you fill up the tank with gas.

Someone heard second hand about my "two-minute rule" (if the action on something takes less than two minutes, do it as soon as you look at or think of it) and thought it was ineffective. "I'd waste my whole day doing two-minute things, many of which are not that important." My retort was: if they're not important enough to do, they're not important enough to do at all! You're either going to do something or you're not. If you're going to do it at all, and it takes less than two minutes, 95% of the time you'll save time and be much more proactive if you do it immediately.

I think you'll find that many big and important projects have a two-minute-or-less next action on them. You can move several big and important projects forward, and feel better about making progress, by doing a few two-minute-or-less next actions.

I'm not talking about ignoring priorities. I am talking about capturing, deciding, and organizing action steps about everything we have our attention on, big and little. The little, unimportant things too often demand much more attention later on than they deserve, and become too important because they weren't handled when they would have been easy. And many of them can be handled very efficiently in the little weird windows of time we get in odd situations and circumstances.

My "total life to-do list," with me all the time and sorted by context, provides me with lots of options to maximize my productivity wherever and whenever. It creates much more smooth sailing through the mundane day-to-dayness of life. It breaks the cycle of the eternally urgent.

A crisis should be a crisis. Urgent things should be urgent. And they should be exceptional.

You can find out more about David Allen and GTD at http://www.davidco.com

The David Allen Company is a professional training, coaching, and management consulting organization, based in Ojai, California. Its purpose is to enhance performance and improve the quality of life by providing the world's best information, education, and products in the fields of personal productivity and work/life balance.

Comments

[lehrbob007]

It just shows to go ya what a drone this guy and our society is sellin how to "manage" the urgent lifestyle. A common notion among the populace seems to be "If I had my life together, and had no loose ends, I'd be a happier person". Spiritually, my life is "together" at this moment and there is a time and place for everything - even loose ends.This helps cut down "crises management" fiasco's. A much simpler way of living is having a "proper" relationship with time and knowing if I don't accomplish every last detail my life will still be fufilling and I won't die unfufilled.

[trentc]

That all sounds well and good, but you've said almost nothing of substance in that comment.

People need to have a "proper" relationship with time? Awesome! What exactly does that mean? Is my "proper" relationship with time different than yours? If so, is one relationship more "proper" than the other? "Proper" implies there's a right way and a wrong day, after all.

Your life is together? Great; how do you define "together"? Would it be the same way I define "together"? Is your life more "together" than mine?

[frantaylor]

I loathe those motorists who fly past my elbow as I ride my bicycle, only to come to a screeching halt at the traffic light half a block ahead. They sit there, clutching the steering wheel with their white knuckles. Bonus points for drinking coffee or talking on the cell phone or both. You idiots have broken my bones and bent up my bicycle on more than one occasion. Slow the bleep down. Be where you are, which is behind the wheel of a car, not working in your office.

[charles2]

Hi David,

Good post. Here are three additional considerations that have helped me out:

Know two minutes. Sometimes I will think it will take two minutes or less to say, compose an email to my boss, but then I find myself re-reading, fact-checking, etc...experience is the only teacher here. Also, don't get sidetracked into big tasks while taking on a two-minute tidbit. Just like I can allow myself to eat two scoops of ice cream out of the carton, it's a danger to have all the food (time) in front of you when you can't really take it all in.

Define sensible actions. Cleaning up my house is a two-day item, not a two-minuter, though I could tackle 1000-2-minuters consecutively. If I have to see my car mechanic, I don't consider walking to the door an action item, even though it has a beginning, an end, and takes less than two minutes.

Pile up. My friend sends an email that takes two minutes to read, but I'm in the middle of work, I'll want to look at it later.So, I create a 2read pile for when I get home. No need to be a two-minute­-rulaholic­.

Although some of these considerations are common sense, that's just verification they should work, right? I bet all problems with two minutes fall within the above pitfalls.

[Cathexis]

I can't help but think this article misses the forest for the trees.

Why do people skip all of the "preventive maintenance" tasks that they should be doing? I don't think it is primarily due to laziness, inattentiveness, or negligence. I think it is because many of us are so bombarded with an ever-growing list of things we have to do that the window of time gets cramped.

For example: Work continues to increase its demands and continues to encroach further into "non-work time" every year. at a certain point, when it just never ends, I know I become resentful (as well as tired, furstrated, and burnt out). I cut corners. I can't "do it all" and have to prioritize. And, after a certain point, I just get sicka dn tired of always having to delve into "my time" and make sacrifices for everything that has been foisted on me.

The real answer is not in prioritizing to avoid crises, but in finding ways to escape from an increasingly dysfunctional lifestyle. Which, I might add, is easier said than done, since few of us subject ourselves to this by choice.

[ShawnMichel]

There is a larger, meta-view not being examined here. Most Americans are sound asleep, spiritually degenerate consumpticans, deeply in debt and more than willing to bend over for The Man. For them, being "eternally urgent" is yet another drug to lend credence and gravitas to their meaningless unlives. And so I doubt you'll get many readers or comments to this piece, seeing that you are, in essence, asking them to put away yet another "high," as ephemeral and useless as all their other ones.

[dadw5boys]

AMEN!!!!!!!

Tried the do it all routine and it nearly killed me.
We were moving Northern Businesses south and setting them up in Fla. so they could get cheaper labor and tax advantages.
Setting up the equipment, aranging the different production lines and train their new employees then get the warehouse setup and organized to control inventory.
Then go do it again, there always a new business looking to enjoy the sunny Fla. weather.
6 years and I was burnt out on the 100 hour weeks. 18 and 20 hour days being ask to solving every conceivable problem from production to problems with the State of Flordia and the EPA.
I did all this before I stopped and went back to college for a degree.

[rlc41]

Actually the "high" is the high drama they can't live without. Many of the "eternal urgent" types are that way because they like it. They wouldn't know what to do with a little order and tranquility other than turn into shit stirrers to make some drama. And this high drama life does cover the full spectrum of their life. All in the neighborhood is quiet and getting along? Let's get on the horn and cause a little drama usually some affair kind of gossip will do it and spead like wild flower. I know quite a few high drama types. I really don't know why but I can say that I just know them. It's hard to be even a causual friend with these types because yes the earth does spin on it's axis just for them. The type can be of great entertainment value if you're in the mood to just sit back and watch them self destruct.

[cktirumalai]

Decades ago, I postponed doing routine things until the last possible moment because they required no thought. This meant that I sometimes forgot to do them altogether but, more importantly, these undone little things cluttered up my horizon. Now I do them very promptly precisely because they require no deliberation, so that my mental horizon is clear enough to allow me to concentrate on the things which do require careful thought.

[auntiewillow]

Who are you and why are you watching my managers like that?