The Difference Between an Urgent and Important Task

A million things can demand your attention when you're busy. Urgent and important difference because what's important isn't always clear.

You're late for a 9 AM meeting. Your boss sends an urgent email. This email could be fired. If your manager had explained why this email was so urgent (or sent it earlier), he wouldn't have slowed down project progress by sending one brief message at 6:00 AM when everyone was already starting their day.

Urgent vs. important, as the saying goes. The former refers to tasks due in the next day or two, while the latter refers to those you want to complete eventually. Consider writing your college application essay before the deadline. You might start it right away because of its importance, but if a friend asks you out, you'll probably say yes (and feel guilty later).

Set a deadline if you want something done quickly, like decluttering your apartment for guests. I'll finish this room by noon, then relax with friends tonight. If we're not careful, obstacles will stand between us and our goals.

You can trick the brain into thinking something is urgent by setting a deadline. Deadlines are great for keeping you focused because they add urgency to your work and give you a sense of purpose.

If you’re trying to finish a project, set an arbitrary deadline — for example, “I will finish this project by the end of today.” You could also say that you’ll finish it in one hour or half an hour. Whatever works for you!

Urgent vs. important differ. Urgent tasks include submitting homework and responding to work emails before the weekend. Urgent tasks are time-sensitive, but important tasks don't have to be. When you finish important tasks, you feel better about yourself and your life.

You have assignments due tomorrow at 10 am and next Friday at 2 pm. The first is time-sensitive, so you work quickly (the priority on this type of task). The second one isn't urgent, but completing it will help build your resume (the importance behind this type of task).

When should you prioritise? Important tasks aren't always urgent. Urgent tasks can be done quickly, but their importance may not be obvious. They can also be crucial to a project or task. If your boss needs his computer fixed right now so he can get his work done before an important meeting tomorrow (yesterday afternoon), then fixing that computer becomes an urgent task that must be done immediately before any other projects or items on your list (or any other items) take precedence over it.

The goal is to be able to complete the most important task first and then move on to the next most important task.

Keep two lists: one of all your tasks and another of urgent ones only. Then rank them by importance (how much time they take or how much money they generate). Start with the most urgent thing on your list and work through it until you have no more items left in that category. At this point, start working through your other items in order of importance until they’re all done!

It's easier to say, "I should stick to deadlines," than to do so. There's no one way to set and meet deadlines, but you can take some simple steps. Effective methods include

Create rewards for yourself (like breaks) or upon completion (like getting out of work early). Sometimes 15 minutes or a day off is enough. If these things aren't enough motivation, consider adding more incentives, like a fancy dinner. If vacations motivate you more than money, plan a trip along with other rewards. Choose whatever keeps things interesting and gives you something special at the end.

We juggle multiple responsibilities and tasks to get more done. Science has shown that multitasking doesn't make our days more productive. Multitasking is inefficient and can be stressful.

Stanford and Caltech researchers found that multitasking reduces focus by 40%. Hundreds of experiments over decades have confirmed their findings. When people try their best, they fail spectacularly at completing multiple tasks simultaneously and feel stressed because they're making mistakes while trying not to (this is known as cognitive load).

You can't manage anything if you don't know how much energy you have, how much more you need, or how much is left.

When deciding what's important or urgent, ask yourself three questions:

Am I Energized? (Important) Am I needed? Should I do this? (Important/Urgent/Fun)

Whether you’re a student or office worker, finding a way to organize your tasks and prioritize them effectively is crucial for success. You want to make sure that you’re completing tasks that are important and urgent first because these are the ones that will get you ahead in life.