urgent or important?

"Never let the urgent crowd out the important." I read this last week...can't remember where, so I can't attribute it. But I think it's a great life philosophy. My best friend Brian has Stage 4 cancer and he is attending furiously to the urgent...and I am watching him miss the important. It saddens me, particularly as I think about all of the urgent that I regularly attended to, all the while missing so much of the important while Derek was alive. How can we change this in our lives?! How can we be more patient with others who don't attend to our needs/desires in a timely way, and respect the fact that they need to honor what's important--not just urgent--in their own lives?