In "First Things First", Steven Covey illustrates a highly effective time management system that will benefit anyone.

Covey's Quadrants system is based on the idea that most people are driven by an overwhelming sense of urgency and he advises us to divide our priorities into the four quadrants listed below:

• Quadrant 1: Important and Urgent - Items in this category are integral to your life and require your immediate attention. This includes: situations such as crises, emergencies, appointments, projects that have deadlines, and other pressing problems.
• 
  Quadrant 2: Important but Not Urgent - Items in this category are integral to your life but don't require your immediate attention right now. This includes: activities like planning and preparing, spending time with loved ones, building and developing relationships with others, considering new possibilities and opportunities, fun and creative pursuits.
• 
  Quadrant 3: Not Important but Urgent - Items in this category are not integral to your life, but they do require your immediate attention. This includes anything that appears pressing on the surface (i.e. returning a phone call), but doesn't have any drastic consequences or repercussions on your life.
• 
  Quadrant 4: Not Important and Not Urgent - Items in this category are not integral to your life and don't need to happen at any particular time (or at all, for that matter), yet doing them consumes your time and energy. This includes distractions and diversions, addictions, obsessions, and compulsions, mind-numbing time-wasters, and other things you can generally do very well without.

Covey warns that a common trend is for people to become consumed with Quadrant 1 & 3 tasks because of their sense of urgency, at the expense of Quadrant 2, which contains many life-enhancing acts.

The focus on tasks in Quadrants 1 and 3 is bolstered by the influence of other people and forces outside you, including the momentum of time. Accomplishing tasks in Quadrants 1 & 3 give us a comforting sense of progress.

Tasks in Quadrant 4 are what we do to anesthetize ourselves to the stressful effects of an imbalanced concentration of our energy on urgent matters. We often use Quadrant 4 tasks to procrastinate from doing something else.

Quadrant 2 is where our true and lasting happiness resides. It is also the category likely to have the least amount of items listed. Among the possibilities listed above, Quadrant 2 can also include: reading and expanding the mind; developing new skills and abilities, getting physical exercise, engaging in recreation and leisurely activities, devising and implementing systems, preventative care, envisioning your future.

Giving more attention to Quadrant 2 activities will allow us to tackle Quadrant 1 and 3 tasks easily and effectively.

 

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