Important v. Urgent
A lesson on time management.
You’re juggling a lot this summer. That’s by design.
Ideally you’ve got multiple projects from different assigning attorneys. You’re being responsive, building connections, keeping up with firm programming, and figuring out what energize you. It’s a lot.
But another challenge that is not necessarily obvious but is critically important is realizing that not all work is created equal.
In fact, one of the most important lessons you can learn this summer is how to distinguish between urgent tasks and important ones. Understanding the difference and planning for both is a hallmark of a standout associate.
Urgent work is time-sensitive. It has deadlines—sometimes external (“we need this for the hearing tomorrow”) and sometimes internal (“I promised I’d get it to the partner by COB”). Urgency triggers action. It creates pressure.
Important work by contrast might not have an immediate deadline but still needs to get done soon and get done well (see “Avoid the Quantity Trap”). Important work moves the ball forward. It’s the deep work: the research memo that lays the foundation for a brief, the outline you start early that makes your final work product better, the feedback you reflect on instead of filing away. Important work is what builds trust and your reputation over time. It’s the work your future self will thank you for and your current boss will remember when they are deciding whether or not to staff you on a project in the future.
Because urgent work screams it often wins. But if you only do urgent work, you risk being reactive instead of intentional. To use a cliche: you risk winning battles without thinking of the war (or to quote the famous lawyer Taylor Swift: “Win stupid games, win stupid prizes). You meet deadlines but you barely meet and certainly don’t exceed expectations. You finish assignments but you don’t grow.
To standout as a summer associate (and as a future lawyer) you need to carve out time for the important because the important often takes more time. Here are a few techniques to accomplish this goal:
Use the Eisenhower Matrix. Dwight D. Eisenhower, five-star general and 34th President of the United States, once said: “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” That idea—simple but profound—led to what’s now called the Eisenhower Matrix: a tool used by CEOs, military leaders, and top lawyers to prioritize their time. It divides tasks into four categories:
Urgent and Important (do now)
Important but Not Urgent (schedule it)
Urgent but Not Important (delegate it)
Neither Urgent nor Important (eliminate it)
Plan ahead. Review your weekly schedule before it starts. What’s urgent? What’s important but easy to delay? Block time for both.
Turn Big Projects Into More Urgent Smaller Tasks. Don’t wait until the last minute to start the big assignment. That is a recipe for failure. Instead turn a big project into smaller tasks with more immediate deadlines to force yourself to feel that urgency on things that are important.
Routinize Your Urgent Tasks. Don’t just sit in front of your e-mail all day and wait to respond to e-mail. Instead know exactly when you are going to check e-mail and when you are going to turn off the noise so you can focus.
Timeblock Your Important Tasks. I might write more about this later in the summer but put your important tasks on your calendar and stick to that commitment.
Watch your patterns. Are you constantly scrambling? Always reacting? That’s a sign to recalibrate. The goal is to shift from putting out fires to preventing them.
Finally, urgent and important tasks are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Some tasks are both. But the key is not to let the urgent crowd out the important.
TL;dr: Identify if a task is urgent, important, or both and treat it accordingly + make time for important tasks!
Keep standing out,
Jonah
