Let's Get this Party Started! -- applying Covey's third habit of highly effective people

A body in rest tends to stay at rest,
and a body in motion tends to stay in motion,
unless the body is compelled to change its state.

Newton’s First Law of Motion

So now you know that I have two speeds, on and off! I am sorry that I have been away so long. We can all learn a lesson from this. If we don’t stay focused on our goals, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and before we know it, we are doing what is urgent but not what is important. Stephen Covey cautions us about this in the third habit of highly effective people, put first things first. As he describes it, the four quadrants of activities are:

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	I – crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects	II – prevention, production capability (PC)[1] activities, relationship building, recognizing new opportunities, planning, recreation
Not Important	III – interruptions, some calls/mail/reports/meetings, proximate, pressing matters, popular activities	IV—trivia, busy work, some mail/calls, time wasters pleasant activities

Source:The Seven Habits of Highly effective People (page 151)

As Covey explains, “Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they aren’t important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II” (page 153). As we start the new year it is good to be reminded of this habit.

I’ve had my wake up call. Why don’t you take a minute or two and estimate what percentage of your time last year was spent in each of these quadrants. Remember, this is for you alone, there is no need to share! I am not even going to tell you what quadrants I’ve been in these last few weeks!Make it a goal to shift your focus this year to more Quadrant II activities.

[1] Abilities or assets that produce the “golden eggs.”