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Personal EffectivenessHabit 2: Clear prioritiesIdentify your priorities and distinguish tasks that are urgent from tasks which are important.Urgent tasks have an immediate impact. Important tasks have a significant impact. Do tasksin this order:– urgent and important– urgent (but do them quickly)– important.Try to prioritise important tasks. Don’t be tempted to fill in odd moments with low-rated tasks.Try and at least start a more important task. If you don’t watch out you’ll find at the end of theday that you haven’t done any of the important tasks but have merely cleared away some ofthe less important ones!Be clear what the critical 20 per cent of your tasks are. Pareto’s Law suggests that 20 percent of the work produces 80 per cent of the results. Be clear what the critical 20 per cent ofyour tasks are and prioritise them.Look at Table 2.1 below. In which box do you spend most of your time? Too much time in boxone means being irresponsible and over dependent, as well as ineffective – you don’t getdown to anything important or urgent. Too much time in box 2 leads to short-termism and crisismanagement– you are ruled by urgency but don’t do anything that is important. Working in box3 on a regular rather than occasional basis leads to stress and burnout, as everything you doseems very important and urgent – you are constantly under pressure (see Example 2.2).Table 2.1 Time spent on urgent and important tasks4Not urgentQuadrant of opportunity■ development■ innovation■ planning1Not urgent/Not importantQuadrant of waste■ escapes■ routines■ office politics3Urgent/ImportantQuadrant of pressure■ crises■ pressing problems■ deadline-driven projects2Urgent/Not importantQuadrant of busyness■ mail and e-mail■ telephone■ interruptions(Developed from an original idea by Covey. S. p151)Ideally you should be looking to be spending a significant proportion of your time in box 4where your work can be more meaningful, effective, balanced and disciplined as well as morein your control!40EXAMPLE 2.2 TOO MUCH PRESSURE: SALLY THESOCIAL WORKERSally is a social worker. For the past two years she had worked in a tough inner cityborough with a very challenging environment, and above average levels of poverty, crime,drug use and mental illness. She had a very heavy caseload of mentally ill clients, someA free sample chapter from Personal Effectiveness by Diana Winstanley. Published by the CIPD.Copyright © CIPD 2005All rights reserved; no part of this excerpt may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in theUnited Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.If you would like to purchase this book please visit www.cipd.co.uk/bookstore.