A popular concept in business management is the Eisenhower matrix. This ranks activities based on their relative urgency or importance. It is used to highlight a trap that many of us fall into – namely, responding to “urgent but not important” matters. We tend to jump on those things that cry for our immediate attention while neglecting much more valuable projects, or better uses of our time.

The idea comes from a speech delivered in 1954 by former US president Dwight D Eisenhower in which he quoted a university chief saying: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

While Eisenhower’s aphorism isn’t strictly true – sometimes important problems are also urgent, like rescuing a loved one from a burning building – he correctly highlights a human tendency to prioritise the wrong things. Inadvertently, moreover, Eisenhower diagnoses perhaps the greatest weakness of modern society. Important problems are almost never treated as urgent. And what’s urgent – the “hot takes”, the political theatre and the emotionally charged postings that light up your smartphone each day – are not important. Not in the great scheme of things.

“Today, we possess more information than ever before, and are less capable than ever before of predicting what will happen next,” writes Giuliano da Empoli in his........

© The Irish Times