How to balance what’s urgent with what’s important

Plus the step-by-step guide to replacing your iPhone with the Apple Watch

Early Sunday morning facing the Albert Bridge with a temperature that has already reached 70°F/21°C. Photo: Per Håkansson.

Thanks for being here. If you're not yet subscribed, press the button below. Upgrade your subscription for access to everything Fewer Better Things and support my journey towards becoming a full-time author (pre-order book here).

---

An unusually late Mediterranean heatwave has captured Blighty in the early days of September while the leaves are in the process of loosing its green. It feels like sauntering around in Rome in late July during the height of summer.

By now the air should be crisp and cool, wanting for a sweater or a lighter jacket, but nothing is normal anymore. They say that the only difference between weather and climate is time and it’s definitely ticking faster.

While the climate crisis is both urgent and important, not everything is – some things are even neither. Knowing the difference makes for simplicity and clarity in everyday life, not to mention less anxiety and stress.

Designing better filters

You might argue that we have an information overload problem while I’d say we just need to challenge our beliefs and design better filters. One of those beliefs is to shed the old idea of being busy and focus on being impactful.

If you want to make a dent in the universe it’s not just enough to get out into space, you also have to focus your efforts on where you can make the most impact. And that doesn’t happen by filling time but by clearing schedule.

A good task management tool in this quest is the so called Eisenhower Matrix, named after the 34th US president and five-star general during World War II – Dwight D. Eisenhower. He famously said in a speech in 1954:

“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

Stephen Covey, the author of the wildly popular and now classic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People turned the former president and American war hero’s words into action and created the Eisenhower Matrix.