Urgency & Importance
- Urgency - How bad is it if I don’t do it.
- Importance - How good is it if I do do it.
Urgency & Importance are functions of Pain & Pleasure.
Importance requires a goal. A thing that feels good to move toward. Urgency requires a whip. A thing that feels bad to get.
Prioritization
Without deliberate Prioritization, urgent tasks take over.
Pain Is Stronger Than Pleasure, and without a clear goal the importance of a task is hazy.
If Leadership has not set a vision, then the only goal people have is “do what my manager tells me to do so I don’t get fired”. It’s a Lose Lose Scenario.
Ideally, we have a life spent Maximize Happiness Rather Than Minimizing Pain.
Determining Urgency & Importance
- If I simply don’t do this work, does anything happen?
- If I do it, What’s In It For Me?
- If it needs to get done, do I need to be the one to do it?