Welcome Professionals…

…time is precious, specifically for top management consultants. We seem to be under continuous time pressure. From my point of view, this problem is getting even worse over time. We continuously run the risk of falling into the urgency trap.

Let’s revisit an old and popular concept that many will be very familiar with. The Eisenhower decision matrix shows importance vs. urgeny on the axes (see picture). It gives some guidance what to do first (important and urgent), what to focus on (important not urgent), what to avoid (urgent not important) and what to limit (neither important nor urgent).

This is a very simple concept which is easy to understand. Yet, it is difficult to apply. The key difficulty is to focus on activities that are important, but not urgent. This is where the long-term value of our business lies. In our context, this could be deep work in order to build some intellectual property.

With the rise of communication technology we find ourselves in a constant urgency mode. Most of the time we are mastering a crisis, that is solving an urgent and important problem for your client. Deadlines are tight. The rest of the time is at risk to be filled with urgent but not important activities like answering emails, messenger items, checking social media and so on. The increase in communication gadgets (both devices and apps) puts pressure on deadlines as well as it creates new distractions. It is a very high risk that we must make ourselves aware of.

All too often, the valuable acitivities of the 2nd quadrant (important not urgent) are dismissed. In the favour of some client deadlines we tend to neglect, e.g.

• physical workout – not urgent, but important for long-term health
• relationships and friendships – not urgent, but important for long-term sanity
• capability building – not urgent, but important for long-term competitiveness

We must make sure that we dedicate time blocks for these long-term oriented goals. It takes awareness, willpower and focus get out of the urgency mode!

Wishing you lots of success,

Malte

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