Getting from Urgent to Important: Tactical Pause
- Joel Abel
- Jul 17
- 2 min read
In education leadership, the calendar never clears and the inbox never empties. But reacting to everything with equal intensity leads to a culture of reactivity—not reflection. Moving from urgent to important requires what Scott Patchin calls a “tactical pause”: a deliberate moment of reflection that redirects energy from busyness to purpose.
Tactical pauses are moments of strategic interruption
As Scott Patchin notes, a tactical pause is not procrastination—it’s intentional space to step back and ask: What truly matters right now? For school leaders, this might mean pausing before rushing into another initiative meeting and instead reviewing whether the last one delivered meaningful impact. The pause allows values—not urgency—to steer decisions.
False urgency is a cultural virus
Harvard Business Review warns of workplaces that confuse motion with progress. In schools, this can look like endless pivots, initiative overload, or rushing to respond to every stakeholder without discernment. When everything is “urgent,” nothing is. HBR identifies key tactics to counter false urgency, including clarifying priorities, naming distractions, and modeling calm focus. Leaders set the tone.
Urgent work demands reaction; important work demands reflection
According to Stewart Leadership, the critical distinction is that urgent tasks are time-sensitive, but important tasks are mission-sensitive. Answering emails, managing schedules, responding to parent complaints—urgent. Coaching teachers, rethinking assessment design, aligning with school values—important. Without time blocked for the latter, your school runs—but doesn’t grow.
The pause is the place where priorities are sorted
In practice, tactical pauses can be short and simple:
A 5-minute team check-in to ask: Are we solving the right problem?
A moment at the start of a meeting to review alignment with strategic goals
A leader’s weekly review of their own calendar: What did I say yes to—and why?
These habits slowly shift culture from reactive survival to proactive leadership.
Slowness can be a leadership strength
As HBR points out, leaders who move too fast send signals that haste is more important than depth. But those who pause—who ask instead of react, who reflect before redirecting—model a different kind of leadership. In education, where change is constant and stakes are high, slowness is not weakness. It’s wisdom.
Key takeaway:
You can’t lead strategically if you're always reacting. Tactical pauses—brief but powerful—reclaim leadership attention from the tyranny of the urgent and re-anchor it to what actually shapes the future. Make space for importance, or urgency will make space for nothing else.
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