Why Some Tasks Deserve Your Energy — and Others Don’t (Full Story 003)

The Challenge

Life and work have a way of bombarding us with tasks that all seem pressing. The difficulty lies in sorting out which of these truly matter.

The Scenario

Imagine an email comes in, giving you a task at short notice—say, a request for a quick report that doesn’t actually influence any of your key goals. It feels urgent, but in the bigger scheme of things, it’s unimportant. The key is recognising when a task is urgent but not important—and resisting the instinct to jump on it simply because it’s shouting the loudest.

The Strategy

Instead of dropping everything, I pause, recognise the nature of the task, and make a conscious choice not to do it. I reply promptly, pushing back and explaining my reasoning. The result? I maintain control of my priorities, avoid unnecessary stress, and build trust by being clear and upfront.

As an example, swiftly deleting wholly unimportant emails is just simply good practice. For the less obvious candidates for immediate culling, l adopt a critical thinking approach. I pause before acting and ask: is this task urgent, important, or both?
– If it’s important, it earns time and attention, but perhaps after an acceptable delay.

–If it’s urgent but not important, I give myself permission to say ‘no.’ The trick is to be open and prompt about that decision—letting the person who set the task know, rather than quietly ignoring it.

This way, I protect my energy and focus for what truly counts, while also showing respect and honesty in my communication. (This is a well known strategy that I didn’t invent.)