What happens when someone tells you that solving a problem is urgent to your welfare and/or the welfare of your business? How do you know if someone else’s urgent is your urgent?
Ed Brown, the co-founder of Cohen Brown Management Group, a leading management consultant and training firm, says there’s “an app” for that. He created it and he calls it the “Importance vs. Urgency Prioritization Grid.”
Here’s how it works: You plot Importance across the grid’s X axis — this is what is important to you and the goals you have committed to.
Along the Y axis you plot Urgency, which is based on others’ perspectives — managers, team members, clients, colleagues…anyone who is putting tasks on your to-do list.
When something is urgent to others and important to you as well, it’s what Brown calls a “Critical Few” task. If it’s somewhat important to you and extremely important to them, it can be placed in the Negotiable box. If it’s somewhat important to them and somewhat important to you, then it’s a Minor Many.
“This is you training yourself to take situational control over your time based on knowing when something isn’t really urgent,” Brown states in “The Time Bandit: Structured Time & Workflow Solution” (Cohen Brown Picture Company). “In fact, you can negotiate with your client, even your family or boss, to contact them at a time or work with them at a time that’s more convenient to you, and do exactly what they want.”
