ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Personal effectiveness
Sam has a long task list and spends most of his day on urgent, important crises, while neglecting important but non-urgent work such as planning and skills development. Using the urgent/important matrix, what should Sam do to improve his effectiveness?
Sam should schedule time for important but non-urgent activities such as planning and development. Doing this prevents tasks becoming urgent crises later, moving him from reactive firefighting to proactive working, which is the main lesson of the urgent/important matrix.
- ASchedule time for important non-urgent activities so fewer tasks become crisesCorrect
- BConcentrate only on urgent tasks to clear them faster
- CDelegate all important tasks and keep only the unimportant ones
Explanation
Effective time management gives planned time to important non-urgent work, which reduces future crises. Focusing only on urgency keeps him reactive, and delegating all important tasks is inappropriate.
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