Rhonda asked that I put up some information on the difference between urgent activities (or demands) and important activities. I made the remark at the residency that the urgent often drives out the important and, when that happens, we are less effective than we should be.
Rather than composing a lecture for you, I decided to give you two short, but very good sources of information. The first focuses on the difference between urgent and important and the relative importance of each. The second focuses on how to manage your time so that you make certain that the urgent does NOT drive out the important.
Hope you find these useful.
John
http://www.yuni.com/library/docs/633.html
http://www.prioritymanagement.com/EN/productivity_tips/urgent_vs_important/