What’s first?

What should be first?  What’s urgent or what’s important?

Short answer:  Important should come first, but urgent usually wins in practice; too often manufactured urgency.

Why do many remarkable and successful people cultivate the discipline and mental clarity to distinguish between what’s important and what’s urgent, and focus on the important? 

Why is it that those who aren’t stuck in the endless grind are those who don’t chase manufactured urgencies?  They’re not lazy, but they have a clearer view about what’s important, and that turns out to be the work that matters more.