First Things First

This is habit 3 of the 7 habits of highly effective people book that I’m currently reading.  It’s this idea of getting your priorities straight and then taking steps to ensure you’re putting effort toward your top priorities.  It was a great reminder as so often I can get distracted by minutiae that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

He had a weekly planner in this chapter that I’ve found extremely helpful this week so far.  Instead of just keeping a to do list or a daily schedule it maps out the whole week and when you can do quadrant II things; meaning those types of things that are important but not urgent.  This is the quadrant in personal management teaching where you can develop yourself the most.  Unfortunately, it is also the most neglected of all four quadrants.  The other quadrants are urgent, important; not important but urgent; not important and not urgent.  The goal is to get out of quadrant 4; not important and not urgent, and spend more time in quadrant II of important but not urgent.

It takes discipline and planning to spend time in this quadrant.  It’s a lot about preventive types of thinking, whether it’s preventing a bunch of fires at work or preventing health problems later in life by exercising and eating right.  How much could we save on healthcare if more people spent time in quadrant II?

To help plan the week, it talks about roles and goals before making the weekly plan.  What are your roles in life and what are the goals that stem from those roles?  What activities do you need to focus on to reach those goals.  Again, this has been extremely helpful for me this week and hopefully I can keep up this discipline moving forward.

What roles are most important to you?  Are you spending time cultivating those roles?  Are you growing in those roles?  What are your goals that stem from those roles?  Are you achieving those goals?  Have you considered what those goals might even be?  Or are you too busy with the daily grind to think about such things.

Again, it takes discipline to think in quadrant II.  Things that are urgent typically take our attention away from important but not urgent things that are vital to our health.  How can you take the time to get into quadrant II types of thinking and doing?