The scale of getting things done:

1. Urgent and important.
2. Urgent but not important.
3. Not urgent but important.
4. Not urgent and not important.

Or for a visual que let's borrow one from Wikipedia:

While it took me a long time to learn about the connection to president Eisenhower, I've generally found this decision matrix a pretty good way for classifying things. It works really well. Because urgency controls attention, and importance determines making sure it happens, which leads to much doing.

And then there's what I call The Class 5 Full Roaming Vapor--something that is not urgent, but is important, and that makes you feel like having a shot of whiskey in the mean time. These kinds of things: you can kinda picture smack dab in the middle of the chart, lol.