“There is no spoon”
Does anyone else feel like much of their life revolves around “the spoon” - the things that demand our attention and require our energy, but ultimately aren’t significant? It’s easy to get caught up in daily deadlines and routines - especially during finals - and in doing so, we let things that really matter to us slip away unless we intentionally fit them in.
We can’t offer a red pill, but opening our eyes to a different kind of matrix may be helpful.
The Urgent-Important Matrix (shown above) can help us reflect on how we spend our time, and whether we like how we spend our time.
All activities in our lives typically fit into one of the four boxes of the Urgent-Important matrix.
Urgent & Important Activities: typically meaningful tasks with a deadline.
Ex: school assignments, filing taxes, or creating promotional fliers for a local event.
Urgent but Not Important Activities: interruptions - they aren’t meaningful to you or others, but they have a deadline.
Ex: paying a parking ticket or taking cookies out of the oven after 20 minutes.
Important but Not Urgent Activities: The meaningful priorities in one’s life with no deadline attached.
Ex: starting your own business, writing a book, reaching out to a childhood friend, exercising, or taking intentional time to relax.
Not Important & Not Urgent Activities: Distractions. These are the activities that you know you shouldn’t do or don't need to do.
Ex: scrolling through Instagram to procrastinate, or cleaning the bathroom when you’re supposed to be filing your taxes.
In a world that emphasizes productivity, it can be very easy to oscillate between the urgent-and-important box and the not-urgent-not-important box. When we get stuck in this cycle, we barely have time to address urgent-not-important tasks, or interruptions, that come up. We certainly aren’t able to think about our important-but-not urgent priorities like self-care or longer-term goals. But research shows we’re actually happier when we act on the things that matter most (Hari, 2018).
Ask yourself “what is the ‘spoon’ in my life?” - the thing that captures your attention but, in reality, is not significant or meaningful. Then ask “what can I change?” You may not be able to get rid of the spoon altogether, but how can you shift things so you can spend more time in the “Important, not Urgent” box?
Pick one thing in your matrix to change this week, and see how that change feels. It doesn’t have to be big - it’s finals week, after all. We’re all busy. But pick something small, and commit. We’re rooting for you.
We are you, we feel you, and we're here for you.
~UVM Thrive Guide
References
Hari, J. (2018). Lost connections: Why you’re depressed and how to find hope. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Mind Tools Content Team (n.d.) Eisenhower’s urgent/important matrix. Mind Tools.
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm
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