Civil Servants: Prioritizing the Urgent from the Important

““It’s often observed that civil servants become overly busy by prioritizing urgent tasks over important ones, even if the latter offers more significant long-term rewards. This psychological phenomenon, known as the Mere Urgency Effect, leads to firefighting and emotional exhaustion.””

— Dr. Sharma

Civil servants work hard. However, author Stephen R. Covey, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People emphasized that “most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” Civil servants face the same challenge, as they often tackle all tasks without systematically distinguishing between the urgent and the important.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, overcame this challenge by organizing his work into four categories, known as the Eisenhower (Eike in short) matrix. This time management tool categorizes work items as urgent and important or not, as illustrated below:

	Urgent	Not urgent
Important	Do first– Things with clear deadlines for taking immediate action	Schedule for later – Activities without a set deadline that bring you closer to goals – easy to delay
Not important	Delegate, if possible – Things that need to be done – busy work	Eliminate, or do last – Distractions that make you feel bad afterwards – are o.k. but in moderation

Let’s explore how civil servants can apply the Eisenhower matrix to prioritize and manage their weekly workload, focusing on common responsibilities such as meetings, file work, field visits and building relationships (networking):

Meetings

Different types of meetings can be placed in the four matrix cells based on their purpose. For instance, meetings to prepare for impending floods or cyclones would fall into the urgent/important cell. Monitoring key government programs like housing or sustainable development goals would be categorized as not urgent/important. Routine land acquisition meetings might belong in the urgent/not important cell.

Files/paperwork

Civil servants deal extensively with files, and their placement in the matrix depends on subject matter and the need for immediate decisions. Files involving high-risk decisions fit the not urgent/important cell. Work items requiring immediate decisions go in either the urgent/important or urgent/not important cell. Files that are to be strategically delayed find a place in the not important/not urgent cell.

Field visits

Urgent field visits for accidents and calamities fall under urgent/important. Visits to assess program implementation quality are categorized as not urgent/important. Urgent/not important field visits could be delegated and monitored periodically. Not urgent/not important visits can occur during important and urgent tours.

Building relationships (networks)

Civil servants participate in various networks, and each issue's placement in the matrix depends on its nature and urgency within those networks. The importance and urgency are influenced by the local situation and the political economy. These issues may need frequent adjustment in the matrix due to changing circumstances.

The above description is intended to show how to use the Eike matrix in the most basic way by civil servants.

In addition to this basic approach, some ingenious civil servants prefer to keep the important/urgent cell empty. They prioritize clearing the unimportant half of the matrix to focus on the important/not urgent cell, preventing items from moving into the urgent/important cell. This strategy can enhance productivity by prioritizing truly important matters. This shows that with experience civil servants can and do improvise on the basic principles governing the Eike matrix.

It’s often observed that civil servants become overly busy by prioritizing urgent tasks over important ones, even if the latter offers more significant long-term rewards. This psychological phenomenon, known as the Mere Urgency Effect, leads to firefighting and emotional exhaustion. Neglecting truly important matters diminishes the real value and meaning of civil servants’ work.