Years ago, I read a short book published in 1967 by Charles Hummel called Tyranny of the Urgent. A man ahead of his time, Hummel describes the tension between two contestants battling for our attention: the urgent and the important.
He argues that the urgent things—deadlines at the office, the demands of other people, and even our own “inner compulsions”—typically trump those things which are most important—regular dates with our spouse, time with our kids, personal solitude, exercise, or meditation (just to name a few).
With incredible depth of insight, he notes that important things are polite; they do not clamor for our attention. They wait patiently for us to act. The urgent, on the other hand, boldly cry out impatiently for our time.
In the long run there is a price to pay for the neglect of the important stuff. Like a volcano, there comes a day when the neglected areas of our life explode and wreak havoc. Ironically, we wonder how we missed the warning signs.
One temptation in life is to say, “Well, I just didn’t have enough time to do everything.” But, most frequently, this lack of time is merely a problem of setting appropriate priorities. As Lao Tzu said, “Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to’.”
Today, deciphering the difference between the important and the urgent is even more difficult. David Goodman, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine sums it up well, “We are being flooded with so much information, we can’t selectively filter out quickly which is important and which is not important.”
For me, becoming minimalist has always been about more than removing physical belongings. It is also the intentional promotion of the things I most value. It is about deciding what is most important in my life and removing the things that distract me from it. It is about removing the urgent for the sake of the important.
I still have the small book from 40-something years ago entitled “The Tyranny of The Urgent.” Thank you for the reminder. The phrase itself is powerful. An old aunt use to say if it says hurry it’s of the devil.
Here is something I once heard that beautifully compliments Joshua’s posting: “When god made time, he made enough of it.”
(p.s. I’m not a religious person)
Ever notice how a person or family runs constantly and the all of a sudden they are all majorly sick at most inopportune time….body and souls way of saying SLOW DOWN….
One of the best post, even the photo of the waves are hitting home today. Preparing for a simpler, less cluttered lifestyle. People can either get onboard with me or get left alongside the tracks, cuz the train is leaving the depot.
I’ve had to learn to say….Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
This is spot on. Thank you! I’ve been trying to achieve the minimalist lifestyle for a while now, and am slowly getting there. I can see the progress and it’s beginning to pay off. Recently I noticed that what our $ are going to are memories and times spent with our loved ones, and each other. I also love this post because it lines up with the frustration I have felt lately of “someone else’s lack of planning and emergency does NOT need to become my emergency.” The decision to bow out of events, tasks and other things that don’t add quality to your life seems to hurt others, at times, but it is important to stick to those choices. Time is a created thing… excellent thing to remember each day.
Huge A-Ha post for me.
I was having an internal struggle with how to Elevate Important things when I have daily things that need to be done. I realise it is about simply prioritising what contributes to Elevating the Important things.