This Friday the Tembo team has a tidbit of valuable success advice to share with you.

This advice is courtesy of a previous client who worked in the technology industry.

Awhile back our founder, Ben Platt, was having a conversation with the client about time management projects and how easy it can be to get caught up in too many things at once. Life is pretty demanding, after all, and there’s always another demand waiting right around the corner.

The client shared a piece of wisdom that is very simple, but often overlooked or forgotten when projects get chaotic.

He reminded Ben that you have to always focus on the things that are important, not urgent.

This may sound too easy, but how often do we get distracted by tasks that seem urgent and leave the important things that would actually move the needle forward on the back burner? Every single day people have requests that weigh us down because they believe they are urgent. It’s up to us to determine what’s important and what’s urgent.

In a sense, everything could be considered urgent, especially when it comes to business.

However, not everything will move your business in the direction you want: forward.

Take Action

The first action step to be able to determine important from urgent is to create and understand your bigger vision.

Ask yourself:

Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Why are you spending time doing this specific task or project?

Once you reflect on these questions it will be much easier to choose whether the task is urgent or important.

Make it a goal to get important things done first.

Try writing “IMPORTANT VS. URGENT” on a sticky note and place it somewhere you’ll see it every day to get into the habit of managing your time effectively.

This advice, while simple, can be hard to follow, but it’s a game changer for entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to be successful in business and carry out their vision.