The Why Behind The Sky

We all have a list. You know, that list of important things that we need to tackle in a day, week, month… lifetime haha. This list is always present but ever changing. The focus here is not the list, but what comes to distract us from it: Reckless Urgency.

Although not fully defined (depending on where you look), for me, reckless urgency is something that masks as both important and urgent, while in reality being neither. It is something that is immaterial but demands attention, and we let it steer us away from more meaningful and impactful pursuits/tasks.

This could be an email that suddenly appears, someone pulling you aside to ask a question, the gnome that ran into your kitchen and took your breakfast, etc. Whatever the distraction is, we have to ask ourselves… is this actually important? Is this actually urgent?

For example, where I currently work, I receive about fifty emails per day that require some sort of action or response. If I were to address each email that comes in, at that very moment, I would never get anything meaningful done, meaning that my clients and colleagues would suffer. Not all of these emails are urgent and most can and will wait. But, it goes deeper… my example above is related to a work environment and I’m pretty sure most humans reading this can relate quite well. What about outside of work? What immaterial distraction(s) is pulling you away from your passions? Your self-care? Your family?

Think about this and lets look at something I call Applied Urgency:

To Apply Urgently or Not to Apply at All…

Applied urgency is intentional and it is tiered on what needs to get done by order of what is most impactful and most time-sensitive. This is where we first determine what is important to us, when we need/want to get this done, and then set a mindset/system to tackle these items.

For help finding a system to use, there are many, but I’m going to highlight something called the Eisenhower Matrix:

The Eisenhower Matrix, developed and used by President Eisenhower, is a very simple but effective method to help place tasks and distractions in their appropriate places of either Do, Decide, Delegate, or Delete.¹

When you take what you want to do, what you need to do, and what others need/want you to do and apply these through the above filter, it can help give you the needed clarity in understanding what goes in which place.

One Final Thought Before I Go Looking for The Little Gnome Thief

Remember, the Eisenhower Matrix is just one of many resources and systems that can help, but it is up to you to determine what is recklessly urgent in your life, Delete this, and apply the correct level of urgency for the things that truly matter to you and are actually important.

1. _{(there is a fifth option of frolicking in a field of flowers but in past attempts this really does no good unless you are looking for the gnome that took your breakfast)} ↩︎