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Guest post by: Donald F. Pooley Become an Author

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Don't know what's important? Do you have problem establishing priorities?
Draw a square on a piece of paper. Bisect it both ways to create 4 smaller squares.
In the top-left square write "Urgent & Important" and in the top-right one write "Urgent & Not Important".
In the bottom 2 squares write "Not Urgent & Important", and "Not Urgent & Not Important".
You now have these 4 categories to put your various tasks and concerns into, ranging from "Urgent & Important" at one corner to "Not Urgent & Not Important" diagonally opposite.
For easy use number the squares, 1, 2, 3, and 4. #1 is "Urgent & Important", #2 is "Urgent & Not Important", #3 is "Not Urgent & Important", and #4 is "Not Urgent and Not Important".
Now take your current to-do list and number each item on it according to its level of urgency and importance.
Once you've done that, you can put everything in #4 on the back burner because it's neither urgent nor important.
You'd think, because both are urgent, that #1 & #2 would be what you should focus on, wouldn't you?
But, according to the experts, #3 is where you should focus your attention, precisely because it's not urgent. Urgency usually means putting out fires, not business building. And often something urgent assumes an unwarranted importance and seems more significant than it really is.
And urgency can be infective, like the client who calls and is up in the air about something that he thinks needs your immediate attention so you dive into it, junking jobs that are far more important to your ongoing success.
Like prospecting, for instance.
Prospecting is usually in the "Not Urgent & Important" #3 slot, and gets overridden by the urgencies of #1 and #2. Neglected too long though and it's "Urgent & Important"
Your future lies in the "Not Urgent & Important" items on your to-do lists, so spend your prime time on them.

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