Mistaking what is Urgent for what is Important

How often do distractions get in the way of achieving long-term goals?

Yesterday, something reminded me of this post on Willpower that I wrote earlier this year. It was singularly inspired by a podcast titled The Science of Willpower thanks to KQED public radio.

In the aforementioned podcast, one of the guests speaks about how we often submit to the attention of urgent things, and thus get distracted from the more important things we ought to be focused on.
In hindsight, the urgent matters that keep distracting us may in fact be important in their own right, but not that important.

It is a failure to stick to what's important, and often taking time to other "urgent" matters that routinely slows or ultimately prevents us from achieving long term goals. Your priorities may in fact be right, but what you keep doing that takes you away from an important task makes a big difference in the end.

The solution is rather easy (I mean easy to say than to do) - delaying gratification.

Here's the KQED Science of Willpower podcast once again:

Determination = Strong WILL + Stronger WON'T

On Tuesday this week, SavvyKenya [one of my favorite bloggers], shared some 17 Tips to boost one's productivity. Reading through the tips, I found the following tip quite interesting:

15. Keep a “Stop Doing List”.

Most of these lists usually contain things that one has to start doing, so I take notice the few times I come across something that one has to stop doing.
The aforementioned tip reminds me of Jim Collins's article about Resolutions. In this article, Jim Collins asserts that we no longer live disciplined lives, ours have instead become busy lives.
In such a situation, there is no time to pause and ask if whatever we are doing is indeed the right thing.

He therefore proposes that one come up with a stop doing list and make this the cornerstone of his/her New Year resolutions, be it for company, family or self.

For one to be able to stop doing something however, self control and restraint are paramount.
It all boils down to delaying gratification, with a view of doing the right thing, and thereby cultivating one's moral intelligence. We highlighted the same in an earlier post.



This is what Joachim de Posada was talking about in his famous 'Don't Eat the Marshmallow Yet' TED Talk above.

All in all, determination to me is more of a stronger WON'T than a strong WILL. It is harder to stop doing something one is already accustomed to than to embark on new things.
As I get ready to do a searching and fearless inventory of my life as I do every end month, I'll be keen to set aside those things I need to stop doing. I already have a list as we speak, only that a discussion of my personal life is beyond the scope of this blog and I cannot therefore share my list ;)
What about you? Anything you need to stop doing from now on?