I clearly remember as a wet-behind-the-ears youth complaining bitterly to my old boss, David Williams, that I was too busy and could never manage to complete everything that needed to be done. He laughed, collected a piece of that old fashioned green line-printer paper and sat down. He said:

“This is the most important lesson that you will learn this week so pay attention because I am only going to tell you once“

He pulled out a pencil and drew a large cross on the paper dividing it into four quadrants, numbering them 1, 2, 3 and 4. Above box 1 and 3 he wrote URGENT in capitals, above box 2 and 4 he wrote NOT URGENT in capitals. To The left of box 1 and 2 he wrote IMPORTANT and to the left of box 3 and 4 he wrote NOT IMPORTANT.

“Every day, when you start work, I want you to spend the first few minutes making one of these, then put everything you have to do that day into one of the four boxes. Now lets see how smart you are, where should you spend most of your time?“

I fell into the obvious trap of saying box 1, he just laughed and said.

“Thats what all the busy fools do, successful people spend their life in box 2 and rarely need to visit box 1.”

I started to get it, but not completely and asked him about boxes 3 and 4. He smiled again folded the paper in half, tore off the bottom half and carefully placed it in the trash.

“That’s where you get the time to do the important stuff“

Close to thirty years later those words are still as fresh as the day I first heard them and just as relevant.