An interesting take on ignoring your task list

A friend of mine sent me this essay, Structure Procrastination (by Prof. John Perry) sparks and interesting thought train when it comes to productivity and Getting Things Done.

The essay draws and interesting comparison between Important vs. Urgent actions. Prof. Perry points out that it is possible to achieve what's really important by feeling comfortable with ignoring other more urgent tasking regardless of where it appears in your lens, until such time as you do, in fact, have to do something with it. He gives some good examples of the positive effects in his role as a teacher. I imagine that most of us find ourselves doing exactly the same thing from time to time.

This is backed up somewhat by Dr. Stephen Covey in the 7 Habits who often cites urgent vs important. He provides examples such as a, a ringing telephone, urgent because you have to pick it up and talk. But it may be a tele-marketer or important things, things that are truly fundamental to your primary purpose/goals, such as planning for your offspring's higher education.

I guess the most import thing about the mechanism in this case, is that everything is actually captured somewhere in terms that specify the end goal, regardless of priority, and then making the priority calls happens at the point of review.

I suppose that I like the idea, because I get to choose what is most important to me, despite outside opinion.

Technorati Tags: getting things done, gtd, life, lifehacks, productivity