Quote Originally Posted by cwoodgold View Post
I'm sorry -- I don't understand your example. Maybe you mean that stuff from the grocery store is important and stuff from the office supply store isn't, or maybe you mean something else. Food is definitely important. Stuff from the office supply store can also be important -- it can sometimes contribute significantly to our productivity. If a supply will be important when we run out of it, then (as I see it) it's also equally important when we decide to buy some way ahead of time so we won't run out of it: that's one of the things I learned from Covey. As I remember it, the book "Time Management for Unmanageable People" by Anne McGee-Cooper [http://books.google.ca/books?id=5BQi...w&redir_esc=y] recommends going once a month to an office supply store, browsing around and picking up stuff you like even if you're not sure yet how you'll use it. If doing that increases your productivity, then I call it important. Maybe you reserve the word "important" for only what I would call the few most important things.



If writing a report nobody reads is really not important, then just say no and
don't write it! However, writing a report nobody reads can be important for
a number of reasons: (a) because of legal obligations your organization has;
(b) to maintain fiable records that probably won't be needed but might turn
out to be crucial; (c) for personal integrity (e.g. because you promised to or
because you're paid to); (d) to maintain good working relationships; (e) to earn
money you and your family live on; (f) to demonstrate your skills and reliability;
etc. If you feel that you have to write it, then I would say it's
important. Other solutions might be to make the report more interesting so
people will read it; to arrange things so the legal or other obligation is removed;
or to have the report automatically generated by a computer program.
I don't consider delegating it to someone else a good solution in general.
It seems to me you have put everything into quadrants I and II then.
I would have a hard time rating monthly browsing at my local office
supply store as important. I used to do that pretty regularly, but
gtd has pretty much made that unnecessary.