Urgent and Important 紧急而重要

Most people know that time is precious and many are facing the time management challenge. How should we manage and maximise our time?

In my teaching of people to save their time, I like to look at things according to four categories.

First category is regarding the things which are neither urgent nor important. It can be an idling time which we have to find something to do, if not we feel boring. For example, people may get into chatting solely to kill time, and such activity is neither urgent nor important, which we should avoid as much as possible.

The second category is urgent and not important things. We indeed can regard these as trivial things. For example, you may come across a friend on the road asking you to have a cup of coffee together. As this is not in your schedule and such meeting is not critical, though it is urgent, it is not important. This trivial thing should also be avoided as it is neither relevant not critical.

The third category is the important but not urgent matter. This is not something trivial, as it can have long term implication if it is being deferred or neglected. For example, to have regular physical exercise is not something urgent but certainly important. If we ignore it, over time our health is affected.

The fourth category is the urgent and important thing. For example, our close friend or relative is suddenly admitted to the emergency room of a hospital. This is without any doubt requires our immediate attention.

In view of the above, we should avoid doing the things which are neither urgent nor important. We can also avoid the things which are urgent but not important. However, we should take note of the important though not really urgent matter in life as it has long term implication. Definitely, it should be our priority if ever we would come across urgent and important thing.

大多数人都承认时间很宝贵，但很多人都会面临管理时间的挑战。我们应该如何管理和善用光陰呢？

在我教导人们要爱惜光陰的课题，我喜欢把事情分成四类来处理。

第一类是既不紧急也不重要的事情。这可能是一段空闲时间，我们必须找一些事情，不然我们会觉得无聊。例如，人们可能只是为了要消磨时间而进行聊天，这种活动既不紧急也不重要，我们应尽可能避免。

第二类是紧急而不重要的事情。我们确实可以将这些事情视为微不足道的，例如你可能会在路上遇到一位朋友，他提出一起喝杯咖啡。由于这不在你的日程表，尽管这看似是紧急的，但这并不重要。因此在时间管理方面，这微不足道的事情也应该加以避免，因为它看似緊急却不重要。

第三类是重要但不紧急的事情。这不是微不足道的事情，因为如果它一再的被推迟或忽视，它将可能会造成长期的影响。例如，定期作个人运动肯定很重要但并不紧急。如果我们忽视它，随着时间，我们的健康会受到一定的影响。

第四类是紧急又重要的事情。例如，我们的好朋友或亲戚突然被送往医院的急诊室。毫无疑问，这需要我们即刻的囘应给予適当的关注。

鉴于上述情况，我们应该避免做一些既不紧急也不重要的事情。我们也可以避免所谓紧急但不重要的事情。但是，我们不应该忽略了生活中那些重要但看起来不紧急的事情，因为它会造成长期的影响。当然，如果我们遇到紧急且重要的事情，那则应该是我们的首要任务。