Monday, August 10, 2015

Tip#557:Conquer the Tyranny of the Urgent in Two Steps

We all share common challenges to maximizing our productivity level. First, there are only 24 hours in a day. Secondly, if we are actively applying Dale Carnegie's Human Relations principles, we have more professional and personal relationships than ever before, but less time to foster them.

Charles E. Hummel published a groundbreaking essay on this subject in 1967 entitled, The Tyranny of the Urgent. In essence, Hummel categorizes daily tasks according to two criteria-urgent and important. The premise of the Tyranny of the Urgent is that if we do not actively allocate or plan for our time, someone else will take it.

Hummel steers productivity seekers into the first quadrant or the area 'Urgent AND Important' where activities such as customer meetings and sales proposals are assigned high prioritization, and rightly so. On the other end of the spectrum, activities such as socializing at work are defined in Quadrant four as 'Not important AND Not Urgent.'

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