I use the “important and urgent” framework to decide what to work on. It’s a four-quadrant grid that sorts tasks into (1) important and urgent, (2) important and not urgent, (3) not important and urgent, and (4) not important and not urgent.
Here’s how this framework might look for my freelance business:
(While creating this diagram, I had to tell myself that tweaking it to perfection is not important and not urgent, so I would stop doing this and MOVE ON, lol)
If something is important and urgent, I’ll do it. If something is not important and urgent, I’ll also do it because it’s urgent.
If the task is not important and not urgent, I might get round to it…eventually, when I’m feeling more free. (This is unless the task is enjoyable in some way, like errr scrolling social media. If so, it’ll usually get done sooner.)
And as for important and not urgent tasks: honestly, they might not be high on my radar until they become urgent.
But recently, I read The Sweaty Startup by Nick Huber, and this book on entrepreneurship changed my perspective on the framework.
Among the four quadrants, he emphasised the importance of doing the important-and-not-urgent tasks.
Nick gives these examples of important-and-not-urgent tasks: sales/business development, hiring, adopting new tech and planning and implementation. They don’t feel pressing when things are going well. They’re often also uncomfortable and hard to do, which makes us want to put them off.
But we shouldn’t, because they’re tasks that help grow our businesses.
What’s more, if you tackle them only when they become urgent, you might not have the luxury of time to do them well. For example, by the time you need new clients, you might have to scramble for any client, regardless of their fit, just to stem the bleed in your revenue.
Small business owners who are also the ones doing the work are especially at risk of neglecting important-and-not-urgent tasks. *cough* freelancers *cough* We might get so caught up providing services that help our clients grow their businesses, that we neglect the things that would help us grow our own.
And, I’ll admit: I’m guilty of letting my marketing efforts slide when I have enough work coming in. Going forward, though, I want to be more intentional about consistently doing them—even when I don’t need new clients.
Because the urgent stuff—regardless of importance—will always get done. It’s the important-and-not-urgent ones that need conscious prioritisation.
—
Speaking of prioritisation: If you’re curious about how founders and product managers at small bootstrapped software companies prioritise features, Kill the HiPPO, a book I co-wrote with Steve McLeod, was just published in March 🎉 I’d love for you to check it out!
More freelancer news
More Singaporeans are choosing portfolio careers
Portfolio careers are careers that involve multiple jobs rather than working for just one employer. According to a 2025 survey by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, about 1/3rd of Singapore respondents had such careers.
Possible reasons for choosing portfolio careers include rising living costs, economic uncertainty and AI disruption. But there are also potential downsides, like a lack of work-life balance as you juggle multiple jobs, and inconsistent monthly income.
That said, employers are becoming more open to employees having outside gigs as long as they disclose these gigs, avoid conflicts of interest and can still perform to the required standard. This could be good news if you’re holding a full-time job but thinking of freelancing on the side.
More on the portfolio career trend in this news article.
What can MOM do when foreign freelancers advertise Singapore-based services on social media?
In short: Not much.
Foreigners can’t freelance in Singapore unless they have a valid work pass. But the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) can’t take enforcement action (e.g. mete out fines or jail terms) against freelancers who advertise their services from overseas, because they aren’t in Singapore.
At most, the ministry can get social media platforms to take the ad listings down. It’s only if these foreigners step foot into Singapore to deliver freelance services that MOM can take enforcement action against them.
Read the Minister for Manpower’s reply about this matter here.
This post was first published in my email newsletter on 21 May 2026. If you liked it, sign up for my newsletter here:
