During our 2019 PMN staff coaching sessions with Sam Farina, he recommended the booklet, Tyranny of the Urgent by Charles E. Hummel ($1.99 for the Kindle edition on Amazon). It is an easy and quick read. The entire booklet contains just 31 pages. However, it has sold over one million copies, remains among today’s best sellers, and is still considered a self-leadership “classic.”
Why We Fail To Do The Important
According to Hummel, the issue is not a lack of time, but “a problem of priorities.” He quotes a factory manager who advises, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.” Urgent tasks, even when not important, always “call for immediate response.” The urgent demands our attention. However,“many important tasks need not be done today, or even this week.” We intend to do the important. However, because so much of our time and energy is spent doing the urgent, we fail to make the important a priority. As a result, we fail to do many of the important things at all.
What DID Jesus Do?
At the end of a brief three-year ministry Jesus was able to say to the Father, “I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4 NLT). Wow. How could such a short life and ministry also be a “finished” or completed life? According to Hummel, this was Jesus’ secret:
He prayerfully waited for his Father’s instructions. Jesus had no divinely drawn blueprint or schedule; he discerned the Father’s will day by day in a life of prayer. Because of this he was able to resist the urgent demands of others and do what was really important for his mission.
Hummel agrees with P.T. Forsyth who once said, “The worst sin is prayerlessness.” Hummel explains, “ . . . the root of all sin is self-sufficiency . . . When we fail to wait prayerfully for God’s guidance and strength, we are saying . . . that we do not need him.” Therefore, Hummel suggests that we prayerfully engage in the following process:
-
- Decide What’s Important. “The first step to regain control of time is to decide what activities are most important so that we can plan to give them the proper priority during a day or a week or a month . . . Take time to write down a goal for each important activity, and estimate the time it will take during the next several months.”
- Discover Where Your Time Goes. “Begin with an accounting of how you are currently spending your hours. This is essential because your pattern of spending time is a picture of your present lifestyle with its needs, values and desires. Any adjustments— some of which can be painful—must begin with facing this reality.”
- Budget The Hours. “Start with the way you are using the hours now and plan only a few changes. . . Consider one high-priority item for which more time needs to be budgeted. Then make the hard decision as to what activity must be cut back, if not eliminated, to free up those required extra hours.”
- Follow Through. “Even the best-laid plans produce little without a firm resolve to implement them. At the outset of the day recommit yourself to the Lord as you think of the hours to follow. Take a few moments to list in order of priority the tasks to be done, taking into account commitments already made . . . be ready to implement your plans as the day’s battle against the clock begins.
- Evaluate. “Christians who are too busy to stop, take spiritual inventory and receive their assignments from God become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent. They may work day and night to achieve much . . . but they don’t complete the work God has for them to do.”
Hummel’s Convicting Conclusion
Hummel’s own words are the best summary of the most important key insights in this brief booklet:
One of the greatest struggles in the Christian life is the effort to make adequate time for daily waiting on God, weekly inventory, and monthly planning. Yet this is the path to escaping the tyranny of the urgent. As we hold to the teachings of Jesus and seek his wisdom in the decisions we make, He frees us from the tyranny of the urgent to do what is really important.