Former US president Dwight D Eisenhower supposedly said “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent, and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” The quote – which may be apocryphal – reflects a common organisational problem that we encounter in our lives. Frequently we find ourselves mired in pressing tasks that need our urgent attention, and this constant putting out of minor fires prevents us from ever allocating time or energy to the projects that ideally are the highest priority. Conversely, sometimes focusing on the important things means neglecting the urgent jobs that require more immediate action. Almost everyone has found themselves having to make the trade-off, and various solutions have been proposed to help navigate the balance.
When it comes to tyre maintenance, there’s the same problem – but a TPMS helps.
Tyre pressure is rarely an urgent task, but it’s certainly important. Driving on improperly inflated tyres is both expensive and unsafe. Expensive, because it wears out your tyres faster and reduces fuel economy. Unsafe, because incorrectly inflated and/or worn-down tyres have poorer traction and handling, longer stopping distances, and an increased chance of blowouts. So ensuring that your tyres are correctly inflated should be a pretty high priority.
Unfortunately, tyre pressure rarely seems urgent. Part of that is because you can’t tell whether your tyre pressure is all good or not just by looking. You have to take the trouble of manually checking it with a pressure gauge, and if your tyre pressure is all fine, then you’ve just wasted your time. But if your tyre pressure is too high or too low and you don’t take that time, you’re making a big mistake.
Unless, of course, you have a tyre pressure monitoring system. Using tyre sensors to directly measure your tyre pressure, this device lets you know when you need to adjust your tyre pressure. That way, you can act with the appropriate urgency when you need to, and you can forget about it the rest of the time.
Tyre pressure might not be a big part of your life, but a blowout or an accident can ruin a whole lot – and keeping your tyre pressure as it should be is part of avoiding an accident. So get a tyre pressure monitor and devote your time and energy to the really important things in your life.