More 'Urgent' and 'Important'

Jobs in the red, top right square are both important and urgent - they must be done straight away.

Jobs in the lower-left blue square are neither important, nor urgent and so aren't a priority (although they may be 'nice' jobs).

Jobs in the lower right yellow box are urgent, and must be done soon.

One of the areas we often neglect is the upper-left green box - jobs that are important but not urgent. One of the characteristics of effective people is that they don't neglect these important jobs. When we take care of the important things, we may well have less urgent things to do.

Having found out our priorities using this method, we can use the '4D's' to help us decide what to Do, what to Delegate, what to Defer till later, and what to Drop (not do).