{"id":14916,"date":"2015-12-06T05:59:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T10:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=14916"},"modified":"2015-12-06T10:56:53","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T15:56:53","slug":"planning-prevents-crises-eisenhower-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/planning-prevents-crises-eisenhower-decisions.html","title":{"rendered":"Planning prevents crises: Eisenhower decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nA local elected official recently confused “crisis” with “important”.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nYet a crisis is something that is both urgent and important,\r\nand if we spend more time on things that are important and not urgent,\r\nsuch as planning, we won’t have as many crises.\r\nInstead, the corporate media and social media\r\nwould have us spend most time on interruptions that are urgent but not important \r\n(traffic slowdowns or obstructions) or, worse, trivia that is neither urgent nor important\r\n(which celebrities are seeing whom).\r\nThis confusion affects everything from attracting jobs to electing candidates to clean air and water.\r\n

\r\nDwight D. Eisenhower had a solution:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIn a 1954 speech to the Second Assembly of the World Council of\r\nChurches, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was\r\nquoting Dr J. Roscoe Miller, president of Northwestern University,\r\nsaid: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important.\r\nThe urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”\r\nThis “Eisenhower Principle” is said to be how he organized his\r\nworkload and priorities.\r\n

—\r\nEisenhower’s Urgent\/Important Principle:\r\nUsing Time Effectively, Not Just Efficiently<\/a> by Mind Tools; see also Quote Investigator<\/a> for several variant versions.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nEven though it often seems to be forgotten,\r\nthis has to be one of the most popular business and personal improvement methods ever, so there are plenty of graphics and explanations.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
\r\n\r\nFirst Things First, book by Stephen Covey, 1994, described in Wikipedia<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDo we really want to spend all our time putting out fires?\r\nIf not, maybe we should \r\n\r\nspend more time doing fire-prevention.\r\nTo help with that, maybe spend less time answering every telephone call\r\n(interruptions)\r\nor telling everyone how little time we have (time wasting).\r\n

\r\nWhich is which?\r\nWell, that’s up to you.\r\nBut if you spend most of your time reacting to things that weren’t foreseen,\r\nyou’re probably in crisis mode too much of the time, and could use more planning.\r\nIf you spend a lot of time being outraged over what you see on TV,\r\nyou’re probably being manipulated with time wasters so you will buy\r\nadvertised products and not pay attention to really important problems\r\nfacing the country and the world.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
\r\n\r\nUrgent vs Important, John Lura, Design, 3 March 2010<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSo how could you manage your time?\r\nPrioritize what’s important, followed by what’s urgent.\r\nIf something is neither, avoid it.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
\r\n\r\nEisenhower’s Urgent\/Important Principle:,\r\nby Mind Tools\r\nUsing Time Effectively, Not Just Efficiently<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHow can you do that?\r\nFor any task, think about: is it important? Is it urgent?\r\nIf you know what tasks you need to do for a day (or week, month, year, etc.)\r\nwrite them down, and sort them according to urgent and important.\r\n

\r\nIf you don’t know what tasks you need to do for a day,\r\nmaybe you should carve out some time to figure that out,\r\nbecause you’re probably reacting in crisis mode instead of\r\ndoing important things.\r\n

\r\nIf you’re an elected official, and you keep finding agenda items that have to be voted on right now to approve funds for things you never heard about before,\r\nyou may want to consider whether you’re being manipulated by your staff for the advantage of some special interest instead of representing the people who elected you.\r\nWhy aren’t staff doing the important work of planning ahead so you don’t keep getting these urgent vote-right-now agenda items?\r\n

\r\nOn a larger scale, state or national governments may leave important things undone because they’re just too busy dealing with near-term issues, or maybe because big money is going to their campaigns to keep them looking the other way.\r\nThat can end up with huge issues becoming urgent.\r\nMore on that in another post.\r\n

\r\nImportant vs. urgent also applies to things like attracting jobs.\r\nGiving away tax revenue depletes funds for schools that could make a better\r\nwork force that would attract better jobs with better pay.\r\nMore on that later.\r\n

\r\nRemember:\r\nwhat is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important, and choosing to deal with important but not urgent items, can keep them from becoming a crisis.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe Eisenhower Decision Matrix: How to Distinguish Between Urgent and Important Tasks and Make Real Progress in Your Life<\/a>,\r\nby Brett & Kate McKay, The Art of Manliness, 23 October 2013.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

Yes, that last one is from a website called The Art of Manliness.\r\nBut this principle isn’t sex-linked or age-linked: it works for anybody.\r\nPaying more attention to important things leads to fewer crises.\r\n

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