Tyranny of the Urgent

Some time ago, I heard someone warn against living under "Tyranny of the Urgent."  This made a massive impact on me, and I have tried to remain aware of it ever since.  Some things are urgent without being important, but many more things are important without being urgent.  MOST of the time, we should be focusing on the important.  I think this important for every person, but it is of critical importance for teachers.

There are a lot of urgent things on a teacher's plate.  Lesson plans are due on Monday, and exams must be done by a certain time.  Grades are due so that report cards can go out when they are scheduled to, and it is important to give timely feedback on written work.  It can be easy to get caught up in spending much of your time on things that seem urgent at the moment and even those that truly are.  MOST of the time, however, we need to keep our eye on the bigger picture.  If those lesson plans are submitted a day late because you were focused on something that matters more, your administrator will understand.  If they don't, you either have a habit of turning in late lesson plans or you need a different administrator.

The conversation you have with a student about their future career may not be urgent.  It isn't "due" tomorrow.  The extra help you give a student to help them understand something may not be on your schedule, but it is the important way you show a student you care.  That timely feedback you are trying to give is only worthwhile if it is meaningful feedback.  If there is a choice between giving back generic feedback tomorrow or meaningful feedback the next day, take the extra day.

I'm not saying this is an easy thing to do, but there are ways to make it easier.  You know all the advice we give to students about organizing their time and projects.  That advice is just as true for us. If we don't start working on the lesson plans that are due on Monday until Sunday afternoon, they will most certainly seem urgent.  If, however, we start working on those lesson plans the Tuesday before they are due, we will find them easy to put down when a student asks to talk.  If the exam we are writing is tomorrow, we won't be able to close the computer when a kid comes in with questions about that exam.  Getting a yearbook done doesn't happen in one day; it requires months of planning for photography, planning pages, and meeting intermediate deadlines.  It is important on my staff that every student is pictured at least three times, but that doesn't happen if we wait until the day pages are due to tag those pictures.  Tagging isn't urgent, but if the coverage goal is important, it must be done.  That means planning ahead and working as you go.  Again, you may recognize this advice from your own instructions to students.

It also helps if you know what is important to you.  You need to put some thought into this because if you leave it to decide in the moment, you will succumb to the urgent every time.  What is critically important to one teacher may only be mildly important to another.  Knowing what you find important will make you more likely to recognize it when you need it.

You may have noticed that I have twice capitalized the word MOST.  MOST of the time, you should  be focused on the important rather than the urgent.  It is equally important, however, to give yourself occassional permission to give in to the urgent.  For me, there are two weeks of every year that I allow myself to put off grading and finishing my lesson plans because the things that are urgent in that week must happen during that week.  Spirit Week is the most notable example of that.  I must take pictures, hundreds of them, on two different campuses every day of that week.  This means that my planning periods are taken up in going from class to class, driving to the other campus, processing those pictures, and uploading them to Jostens.  During that week, my students give project presentations, watch relevant videos, or spend time collaborating on a project.  That frees me from grading and lesson planning during that week, allowing me to give in to the urgent.  The other week is the week before the final yearbook deadline.  My students may take a test during that week, but they will not get them returned that week because I must meet my yearbook deadline.  Since I have developed credibility with them during the rest of the year, my students are usually pretty forgiving that they don't get things back as fast they would like during that one week.

If you spend most of your time focusing on the important, the few times when you do have to succumb to the urgent won't seem quite so tragic.