Everything is important, but in Grad school some things definitely seem to be more important. When there are deadlines it’s hard not to feel the pressure to prioritize a task. Yet, the projects or activities that we find important, but don’t have an immediate deadline or earn us a grade in Grad School still need a place in our lives. This article from a professor at the University Washington gives some insight in how to manage tasks of high importance, high urgency vs. tasks os high importance, low urgency.
http://www.grad.washington.edu/mentoring/memos/time-management.shtml
I liked this a lot, especially because I battle it a lot in my own job. I have “direct service hours” where I’m seeing clients, leading groups, etc., and then I have random blocks of time in between that where I’ve found that if I don’t schedule some of those “low urgency” tasks, or use it to have lunch with a friend I haven’t seen in awhile, etc., I end up feeling much more frustrated and less “productive”, as well as nurtured. So, in a nutshell, I agree with this article 100%!