Stuff happens. As much as you want to feel in control of your life, and as much as you work at implementing systems and strategies to keep yourself on track and focused, you will always have to deal with noise that interferes with your plans.

What matters most is how you deal with it, and that starts with recognizing that not all noise is created equal. Generally speaking, there are four kinds of noise:

  1. Things that are not urgent and not important: These are the thousand little nuisances that can eat away at your time like termites. If you let them, they can add up to take over huge parts of your days. Don't let them. Dispose or delegate.
  2. Things that are urgent but not important: Phone calls and emails that need responses. Dinner plans. Minor decisions that team members are waiting for answers on. They need to be addressed in a timely way, but if you take each one as it comes, they can become persistent distractions. Try to reserve a specific time each day to deal with these issues and tackle as many as possible at once.
  3. Things that are urgent and important: A patient with an immediate concern or a family crisis that requires your attention. These things simply cannot be put off, so you must deal with them with full attention, even if you weren't prepared to, and deal with the schedule fallout later. That's just part of being a leader.
  4. Things that are not urgent but important: The team-building meetings you want to have, the courses you should attend, conferences with your peers you would like to be a part of, family events you have been invited to. Nobody is going to force you to do these, so they often become the first things to get crowded out. They may not be as loud as the others but they are making noise for a good reason. In other words, sometimes the "noise" you hear is your conscience speaking – and that is something worth listening to.

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