4 Ways to Increase your Productivity Today!
By Chris Tinsley
There are a lot of books out there on productivity and ways to get more done but I don’t think anyone has done it better then Stephen R. Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission.
If you have not read this book, then I recommend clicking on the links below to the paper back version or if you want to be highly effective purchase the Audio book for those long drives.
Paper back version: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Audio book version: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Overview: This post is talking about Covey’s Time Management Matrix that I can honestly say I use on a daily basis. In fact I even printed the following charts and I have them taped on my desk so I can remember what quadrant I am currently in. Here are the Quadrants and the result of staying in any one area. Covey emphasizes that you should spend most of your time in Quadrant 2 to be a highly effective person.
If you don’t want to read this whole post then check out these images from the book and go out and buy yourself a copy for the full run down on how to be Highly Effective it will change your life!
Before Starting to note:
Urgent Activities: require immediate attention and are very visible
Example: Ringing phone
Manage-Quadrant I: Important but Urgent
This quadrant is usually where people who live crisis to crisis spend their time.They spend 90% of their time here and only 10% in other quadrants. Focusing on this area will make it get larger and larger. As you can see anyone who stays in this area for most of their time will end up being stressed, burnt out and are always in an emergency. Everyone has problems that fall into this category, but it is your responsibility to Manage these Important but Urgent activities
Weekly calendar: If you are spending your time in this quadrant you are leading an irresponsible life. You may think you are being productive but ultimately you have no control over your activities. You are doing unimportant but urgent activities. As you can see above living in this area leads to short term focus, always in a crisis, many times these individuals feel out of control and can’t manage their time wisely. Once again we all find ourselves responding to emails and having interruptions in our life but delegating these unimportant activities to others or just spending less time in this area will allow you to have more control over your life. This is the area I can find myself in most of the time and I feel like I was able to accomplish something most days. Since I have purposefully been staying out of this area, I find myself being happier and getting more done by spending less time in this quadrant. There isn’t a lot to be said about this quadrant except to stay out of it if you want to be highly effective. Most people that hate there job tend to spend a lot of time here and very often they are the ones who get fired are very needy and are just totally irresponsible. Dump any activities that live in quadrant 4 and are wasting your time. Looking back on those people that I went to high school with reveals all those people who live their life in this way. Jumping from job to job with no control over their life and making decisions that don’t get them any closer to their goals. People who spend their time using others and the system to help them with the basics of life when there is not a legitimate need. Weekly planner: Where Covey says you should be spending your time is in quadrant II. This is right where you should be for personal management. These are things that are important but not urgent. People don’t do these important activities because they are not as urgent as a ringing phone or an immediate crisis. Quadrant II people are “Not Problem Minded They Are Opportunity Minded” -Peter Drucker Instead of doing the urgent thing you should be doing the less urgent activity such as relationship building and long-term planning. Doing those things that will have long term effects such as exercising and taking care of yourself so that you can stay healthy and continue to work. Very often people don’t take care of themselves and end up in terrible health. If you can focus more of your time doing those things that are important and not urgent then you can have better vision and perspective take control of your life and not live in quadrant I with all of the constant crisis. Plan for your life don’t let your life plan you. 2019 Planner: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen Covey. Paper back version: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Audio book version: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal ChangeDelegate-Quadrant III: Not Important but Urgent
Dump-Quadrant IV: Not Important but Not Urgent
Focus On-Quadrant II: Important but Not Urgent
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