By Jillian Broaddus and Chuck Cusumano
Merry Christmas! In honor of the holiday and the busyness of the season, we're sharing a blog from two years ago, whose message we believe is even more important now than it was then: Urgent Versus Important.
In Dr. Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” he says, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important."
Of course, there are instances of items that fall into the urgent-important overlap, which he coaches that one should prioritize. However, for the most part, we spend a vast majority of our time on urgent, “shallow” activities: answering emails, tactical chores, and putting out immediate fires. (In fact, we reportedly spend almost a THIRD of our workdays just reading emails!) Inevitably, our time is then detracted from the more significant, “deep” activities: relationship-building, health, spirituality, and our long-term life goals.
During the holidays, we all typically find ourselves occupied with urgent – albeit fun –demands: shopping, gift-wrapping, decorating, baking, party-planning… However, I challenge you to not let these “urgent” tasks take away from the important things this season: spending time with loved ones, expressing appreciation for the things we are blessed with, and reviewing 2021 while evaluating what we can do in 2022 to make it our best year yet!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Joshua Group!
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