I don’t know how he did it, but it was stress in person. Going from one place to another, always on the run and putting out fires every day. Jumping from one subject to another, he filled his 16-hour work day and still had time to spare. He was one of those clients who was always on his ass. And one day, while he was drinking coffee in a hurry after a work lunch-meeting with me (I invited)I grabbed a napkin, a pen, and I told him the same thing that they told me at the university a few years ago.
It was one of those classes that I will never forget in life, it was in which I learned the quadrant of Stephen Covey about important and urgent things. It’s one of those basic and useful concepts that sticks with you forever. I have always had it in mind, but when I started working as a freelance consultant it helped me a lot to establish priorities.
The theory is very easy, since there are only two concepts and the intersection between them, which forms their quadrant. Let’s see what the RAE says:
- Urgency: Necessity or urgent lack of what is necessary.
- Importance: Quality of what is very convenient or of great consequence.
So far we have it clear, right? Let’s give a couple of stupid examples:
- Urgent: Leave the building in case of fire.
- Important: Have fire extinguishers in case of fire.
Well, the examples are very illustrative. It is urgent to leave the building if it is burning, and in turn it is important to have fire extinguishers. Now let’s put a couple of examples in the professional world:
- Urgent: Answer a phone call, fix a problem with a client, deliver a project on time.
- Important: Have a website, dedicate time to R&D, do brainstorming, improve the product or service.
It is also clear. If we have a problem with the mail server and we cannot receive emails, we must solve it urgently. On the other hand, if we do not have a website, there is no urgency, even though we know that it is an important matter and that we will have to do it.
we have the problem When the urgent things eat up the important ones. Why? Simply because important things are always left out and never done. We put them off and on, until one day they become urgent and sometimes it’s too late. For example (sweeping home) The day-to-day work does not give you time to make your website and you are delaying it. You never do it. And one day you discover that you have lost (and you have stopped capturing) a lot of customers for not having one. And as a consequence, stop making money, or even have to close. The same with R&D, brainstorming meetings, or improving your products or services. Important things must be done, even if they are not urgent.
So let’s see the famous quadrant that I drew on your napkin:
Well this is simple and easy. And since that day, one of the first things I do when I propose the development of a project for my clients. We must fill in this quadrant with all those tasks that the client knows perfectly. Just because he doesn’t, doesn’t mean he doesn’t know. We all know that “we have to do this or that” but never do. Thus, the client fills in the quadrant with his own tasks resulting from his experience. And then we apply the following decision-making model:
Well, we have it ready! A 2×2 matrix that tells us exactly what to do. Let’s look at the four possibilities:
- Important and urgent: Do it now! Get out of the building if it’s on fire, fix the phone line if it’s down, finish that project due today, fix a last-minute problem with a client, etc. This quadrant has no doubt. It’s a no brainer.
- Important but not urgent: Decide when you should do it. Set a date for the R&D meeting. Schedule a brainstorming. Look for a space to talk with a webmaster to make your website. If you can’t do something important right now, at least spend 30 seconds deciding when you can spend 30 minutes on it.
- Not important but urgent: Delegate it! Outsource it! If your power or phone line goes out, don’t try to fix it. Call the technician! Shoemaker to his shoes. Leave the futile hustle for others. If you are answering the phone all day for stupid calls, time thieves, hire a secretary or hire a call center service, and dedicate yourself to what you really should be doing.
- Neither important nor urgent: It’s clear, isn’t it? Forget it. Don’t spend a nanosecond on it. If it’s not important or urgent, don’t even bother thinking about it.
Makes sense right?
A month after that meal, we met again. She was a different person. He really didn’t seem the same.
He thanked me endlessly for that little napkin tip. I had gained weight (I was very skinny before), ate and slept better, and evidently business had picked up. Despite working fewer hours, and hiring a new secretary, benefits had increased. How did she get it? Because since a month ago, she could dedicate more time to what she really had to dedicate. To what only he knew how to do. Which he was really good at, and he could set himself apart from the rest of his competitors. to things important.
On that occasion, he paid for the food. 🙂
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