Getting Your Stuff Done

Image from lifetrainingonline.com

Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has a time management matrix in which he breaks down a day's given activities into four categories: important & urgent (quadrant I), important & not urgent (quadrant II), not important & urgent (quadrant III), and not important & not urgent (quadrant IV).

In our daily lives, many of us are so overwhelmed with Quadrant I and III activities, that when we get any "down time" we fill it with mindless Quadrant IV activities. Quadrant II often represents the things most important in our lives and, paradoxically perhaps, the things we figure there will always be time for later, like friends, family, health, education, R&R. The key to effective time management, of course, is spending as much time as possible in Quadrant II. Plugging away at Quadrant II keeps Quadrant I from growing out of control.




Generally, training is a Quadrant II activity. It needs to be a priority, or it becomes one of those things you'll "get to later" but never do.