The big projects have been sitting, undone, on a list for months.

Yeah, it’s the big stuff, the important stuff, the high priority stuff. You put it on the list because it’s mission critical and has to be done.

Yet it’s not done. It’s just sitting on the list.

You’ve let it slide as you’ve pushed other, more urgent, tasks to the top of the list.

We all do it. It’s the way life works out. The urgent stuff gets done, while the important stuff lingers.

Oddly, ignoring the important stuff turns out not to be a disaster. The business continues to get by even with the important projects sitting dormant on a list.

The fact that you survive without doing what you consider important is a valuable thing to notice.

Let’s turn the situation upside down for a moment. What if we did the important stuff and let the smaller, seemingly urgent stuff linger? What would happen? After all, our inattention to the important stuff didn’t cause our ship to sink. It’s time to rethink.

How Do You Define Important?

Why is it that you’ve survived without doing the important stuff? Why is it that months have gone by without that failure causing a crisis even though the important stuff isn’t getting done?

Is it possible that you’re not very good at evaluating the importance of projects and their urgency, etc.? Is it that you’re not very good at predicting the consequences of your failure to act? Do you struggle to understand the impact of each item you put on the list?

I don’t think so. I think you know exactly what’s important and what’s not.

Let’s look at your list:

1. Create a new website with a cool calculator and informative videos.
2. Document your office systems.
3. Build a network of referral sources.
4. Enroll in a Manager Tools course.
5. Fire the paralegal and replace her with an iPhone app (okay, just kidding on that one—kinda).

The list is filled with good stuff. These things will make you money. They’re important because they change the way this plays out for you. They turn an adequate income stream into a much larger income stream. They enable you to grow the business, take vacations, pay for the kid’s school, and fund your retirement. The important stuff can change your life.

Yet you get bogged down in the urgent, and then you’re tired and need a break.

When you step back, even if just for a moment, you can see it. You’re smart. You’re good at seeing the context, the flow, and the way this is playing out. You spend time looking into the crystal ball for your clients. You can do it for your own life as well.

You’re able to see the big picture. You can see the important projects, the urgent tasks, the time available each day, and the pressure related to each priority. You can see how it all unfolds over time. You get it.

There are lessons in your big-picture observations if you’ll take the time to think about what’s happening. You can alter your course as you gain insight into the larger view of your circumstances.

Can You Ignore the Urgent Stuff?

So, today, just for a moment, please play with this thought: What if you did the important stuff and let the small stuff, the seemingly urgent stuff, wait?

Letting the important go undone didn’t destroy you. It hasn’t even had much impact over these past several months.

So what would happen if we swapped the important with the urgent? What would happen if we let the urgent slide and did the important instead? You pushed off the important stuff and life went on. The universe didn’t explode. The business didn’t go up in flames.

What if you pushed all the little things off to the back burner so you could do the important work? What would happen?

Personally, I’ve done it. Sadly, I’ve only been able to sustain it for brief periods, but I’ve seen the positive impact of working on the important before I get sucked back into the urgent, mostly unimportant tasks.

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Here’s what happens when we ignore the small stuff:

1. The little things pile up.
2. Some of the little things resolve themselves.
3. Some of the little things shrink in importance and evaporate.
4. Some of the little things wait patiently.
5. Some of the little things metastasize and have to be addressed.

The business continues, and the profits roll in even as the little things pile up.

Of course, the pull of the small things is overwhelming.

The little things that metastasize are the worst. Even though they’re small, these are the things that truly matter. They blow up and cause big headaches. They’re incredibly dangerous because they shift you back from the important stuff into the urgent stuff.

They’re bad not because they take much time to resolve but because they get you focused back on the little things. There’s something appealing about resolving small things. It’s easy to slip away from the big things when you’re required to address the small thing that’s exploding. It’s hard to get back to the big stuff.

Refocus on the Important Stuff

The business starts to grow when you work on what’s important. Even if you can only sustain it for a week, you’ll see substantial progress. The smallest of the big things has more impact than most of the small things.

Pushing the little things off and working on the big things causes lasting change. The website you build today will be useful a decade from now. The week you invest in these projects now will pay off for years. The same is true of many of the other items on the list (the management training, systems documentation, etc.). The big things pay off big. You’re right to think of them as important.

It’s easy to let the small, urgent tasks pull us away from what we know is important. It’s a constant struggle. But the outcome of this struggle determines our future. If you’re able to turn your focus to the important and invest the time, then you’re going to see impressive results. If you allow yourself to be pulled back by the small stuff, you’ll continue to see results that frustrate and disappoint you.

You’re going to put something off. You’re always prioritizing. It’s easy to believe that deferring the small stuff matters. Yet we know that deferring the big stuff, the important stuff, doesn’t cause devastating harm. Maybe the small stuff isn’t as important as it seems at the moment?

It’s time to ask yourself, What if you did the important stuff and let the small stuff, the seemingly urgent stuff, wait? The answer could change everything.