Urgent vs. Important
What is difference between Urgent and Important? Many people confuse the urgent and important terms even people who have been in managerial positions for years and in large corporations sometimes succumb to this disease in their professional careers. Understanding the difference between urgent and important can have a great impact on the quality and productivity of both professional and personal lives.
Difference between Urgent and Important
Urgent tasks, for the most part, have an immediate delivery date or a delivery date that has already passed. It is not necessary that this type of tasks consume a lot of time or effort. It is also not necessary that these tasks have a significant impact on life; in fact they could be very trivial or silly. Most of the things that become urgent are due to an urgent situation created when a person always knows that something must be achieved but continues to postpone it. For example, knowing that an email should be received or sending a report that is not so important; this trivial but ignored task can become an urgent task.
Important tasks do not necessarily have a delivery date. They are important because of the impact they have on a person’s life. Again, these tasks do not necessarily consume much time or effort and may not be required to be done immediately. For example, planning the education or career from the first school day is not something that needs to be done immediately but will help to make decisions.
The urgency of the tasks is based on deadlines. Deciding which task is more important is relative to the thoughts and circumstances of each person. In other words, urgency is driven by factors and external pressure. Deciding the importance of tasks is an exercise in introspective.
The added dimension to this difference is that some tasks can be urgent and important. For example, while you may have cholesterol-related problems, you would prefer to make an appointment with the doctor or get a general check-up that is very important to you and your family.
You may have a heart attack or heart attack that makes the doctor’s visit urgent. If these health check-ups had been done regularly and in advance, it would simply be a task on the list of things to do. These tasks became urgent because he ignored them. Using a list of urgent tasks helps people decide which tasks require attention and effort.
In Summary:
- The urgency of a task is based on its delivery date while the importance of the tasks is decided by the impact or significant change they may have in the person’s life.
- The urgency of a task is based on external factors such as the delivery date while importance is an exercise in introspection. What one considers important may differ from what others consider important.
