Lately I have been researching the subject of time management. I have read a lot of books and articles on the subject which frankly has been a waste of time. That’s because there are 25 or so principles of time management that really matter and all the books and articles say the same thing over and over in different ways.

One of the most important principles of time management is training yourself to distinguish between the pressing task and the important task. Much of our day is consumed with the pressing when in fact it should be consumed with the important.

In his best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, Stephen Covey recommends that every day you create a 4-quadrant To Do list with your tasks placed in one of these four boxes:

Box #1: Important and Pressing

Box #2: Important but not Pressing

Box #3: Pressing but not Important

Box #4: Not Pressing and not Important

The exercise is to get you to focus on what is going to move your life forward, move you closer to your goals and aspirations. Then you prioritize what you are going to do everyday and, you should prioritize just as I have described his quadrants. Do Box #1 items first, then Box #2 items, and so on.

As it happens, I can hear you saying, “Nice in theory but not so easy in practice. I have obligations and chores and needs, and if I don’t do the pressing stuff, there are consequences.”

And I respond: ”What consequences? Will you be arrested? Taken to the hospital?”

My hypothetical colloquy is just to make the point that if you do not focus every single day on the important over the pressing, you reduce the likelihood of living the life you want to lead.

To put an exclamation point on my message, I suggest you watch a lecture by Professor Randy Pausch who spoke on time management at the University of Virginia about one year ago. At the time Pausch was dying of pancreatic cancer (he has since died). The lecture is one hour and fifteen minutes and found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0

You don’t need to watch the entire lecture but about 30 minutes in he speaks to doing what is important over what is pressing. As Pausch says: ”time is the most precious commodity you will ever have.”

Jim Randel is the founder of The Skinny On book series. His next book, The Skinny on Success, will be in stores soon.