Nonurgency

This website is dedicated to Non-urgency, a concept so undervalued in human experience that it doesn't even have its own word to describe it.  Urgent has a word, I think because in previous human experience the default was non urgency.  But today nonurgency is so rare I think it deserves a word of its own.  And a website.  And this is my nonurgency website.

I don't remember but I'm pretty sure I originally encountered the concept of nonurgency in Steven Covey's Four Quadrants in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  The Four Quadrants are articulated below.

The Four Quadrants:

  Urgent Not Urgent Important

Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important

Example: Putting out a fire

Quadrant 2: Not Urgent and Important

Example: Strategic planning

Not Important

Quadrant 3: Urgent and Not Important

Example: Email, Telephone call

Quadrant 4: Not Urgent and Not Important

Example: Watching TV

Essentially Covey said, effective people sought to focus their attention in the Important quadrants, of course, but more than that, they sought to spend most of their time in the Not urgent and Important Quadrant (Quadrant 2).  He said, rather than just putting out fires, why not prevent the fires in the first place with some decent planning.

I liked that idea!  But I've recently found myself exhaused by urgent things.  And I'm finding that I'm not always very good at determining what is important.  So I've sought to change the focus of where I put my time from the Important as a group, with an emphasis on Not Urgent, to a focus on Not Urgent with a focus on Important.

This website is dedicated to that idea of nonurgency and the cultivation of nonurgency.