Sparked Vol. 081 – Ignite your Team by Delivering Important, Non-Urgent Work

This edition of Sparked was published and delivered on January 30, 2026.

We deliver Sparked every other week, written for leaders who are ready to get intentional about bringing their team together, building engagement, earning buy-in, and driving motivation to build high-performing teams that drive remarkable results.

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Ignite your Team by Delivering Important, Non-Urgent Work

Leaders tend to be excellent firefighters.

And while putting out fires feels productive and necessary in the moment, it pulls leaders away from making real progress on initiatives that would otherwise significantly move the needle toward where they are trying to lead their team.

We crush email. We are reliable in quickly responding to requests. We attend meeting after meeting, regardless of whether it’s important or not. When something goes awry, we’re there to clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up.

Then, our attention shifts quickly to hitting the next time-sensitive need.

Focus usually goes to what’s most urgent in the queue, not most important in the queue.

And for many leaders, the queue of demands deemed “urgent” never ends.

Meanwhile, the non-urgent, important work stalls or never gets started.

Unfortunately, this illustrates the point well: some of the leaders I coach differentiate the urgent and non-urgent work as their “day job” (urgent work) and their “nights and weekends job” (important, non-urgent work).

The “nights and weekends job” rarely gets done as well as the “day job.”

A couple of examples of important, non-urgent work:

• Clarifying roles, responsibilities, expectations, and decision ownership
• Streamlining systems and documenting processes
• Building alignment on what success looks like
• Recognizing and celebrating wins along the way

My observation: Leaders spend far too much time putting out the day-to-day “urgent” fires in their queue.

Dedicating more time to the important, non-urgent work they are responsible for would not only set their team members up for more success, but it would also allow them to elevate out of the day-to-day, which so many leaders voice a desire to do.

But until a real priority is placed on their important, non-urgent work, leaders will continue to spend their time firefighting the urgent.

Looking for ways to fire up your team members and build a high-performing team?

Deliver important, non-urgent work more consistently.

Why Delivering Important, Non-Urgent Work Builds Engagement

Important, non-urgent initiatives at the leadership level and the room for thinking time present an opportunity to lay foundational pillars to earn and build engagement from your team.

Time spent on strategic planning, process improvement, getting the right people on the bus, developing the people on the bus so they can deliver, and aligning on expectations around what success looks like is what important, non-urgent work looks like.

That thinking and follow-through time leads to deeper directional vision for team members, more efficient processes for them to work in, the removal of “bad fit” team members, attention for skill development and training, and greater clarity across the board.

When leaders create the space and deliver important, non-urgent work, the team around them benefits and leans in.

Another key engagement lever that pulls when leaders elevate away from urgent work: they empower their team members to take ownership and work autonomously, further growing their independence and mastery of their role.

Engagement, motivation, and performance from individual team members and collective teams build when leadership consistently elevates out of the day-to-day, delivering foundational strategy, vision, and alignment to set the team up to succeed in the long term.

Start Taking Action to Deliver Important, Non-Urgent Work

Ready to drive change? Here’s how to take action on delivering non-urgent work:

• Audit Where you Spend your Time: Look back at your calendar to-do list over the last month: how much time did you spend on important, non-urgent work, and how much time did you spend on urgent work? When next week starts, make a two-column list with “important, non-urgent”, and “urgent” at the top. At the end of each day, record how much of your time went to each bucket. You may find it surprising how little time you spend on the important, non-urgent. 

 

• Make your Important, Non-Urgent List: Start building your list of important, non-urgent work that you need to accomplish. What are the projects and initiatives you’ve wanted to get to but just haven’t had the time to? I’m willing to bet that the majority of what is on that list, when completed, will set your team up for greater success. I bet it’s also work that you or only a select few in your organization can really execute. 

 

• Time Block: This requires a great deal a self-disipline to follow through. You are the only one who can protect yourself from where you spend your time. Block time on your calendar for important, non-urgent work. Call it “thinking time”. Call it “important, non-urgent working time”. Call it whatever you want, just carve out the space so you don’t book other meetings on top of it. Most leaders are able to schedule the time on their calendars. Fewer can actually honor it. There’s a professional growth opportunity in that.

 

• Supportively Encourage your Team to Figure it Out: When the primary firefighter (you) is unavailable to save the day, someone else will step in and figure it out. This is a growth and development opportunity for you (ability to let go) and your team (ability to figure it out). They won’t learn to not need you (which is a good thing) if you always come to the rescue. A little bit of error and struggle can go a long way in a team member’s development. 

 

• Find an Accountability Mechanism: Are you self-disciplined enough to hold yourself accountable to following through on your important, non-urgent work as well as you expect yourself to? If so, great. If you struggle to make time for that work, build in an accountability mechanism. That could be a peer you report plans and progress to. It could be a coach. It could be proactive communication to your team about your plans, deadlines, and expectations with a deadline for you to report back by. Test and try different mechanisms to keep yourself accountable to the work only you are positioned to complete. 

 

• Constantly Check Yourself: When something unexpected comes your way, really think and consider if the need is truly urgent or not. We often overestimate how urgent something is. We are used to firefighting and go back to it as a comfort zone.

Congratulations to our 2025 Q4 Culture Achievement Award Recipients!

This recognition shines light on a few select organizations that foster outstanding engagement and workplace culture, as measured by the Fired Up! Annual Culture Index™.

The work to build an exceptional workplace culture is difficult and these organizations should be proud of what they’ve achieved.

Visit the official awards landing page to learn more about the Culture Achievement Award and our Q4 award-winning recipients.

We’re grateful to partner in supporting these organizations. Their commitment and passion make a real difference, and we’re excited to celebrate their success.

Further Exploration on Delivering Important, Non-Urgent Work

• The Eisenhower Matrix: Prioritizing tasks and to-do lists
• The Delegation Dilemma: Why Leaders Struggle to Let Go