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Put First Things Firstby Celes on Dec 28, 2008 | ShareThis Email This Post

Put First Things First is Habit # 3 of Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Do you put your first things first? Putting first things first means doing to the most important things in life. Itmeans being clear about your priorities and acting on them.

That sounds pretty easy and intuitive, but many people unconsciously fall into the trap of getting caught up in

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non-important things. They neglect the larger lifepriorities until it becomes too late to act on them. Tobecome a master of your time, you need to first beaware of your priorities in the larger context of your life.The framework which I will be sharing with you later inthis article – Time Management Matrix - (fromCovey’s book) is tremendously valuable in helping youachieve that. It will help you structure out your dailyactivities in accordance of importance and urgency anddeal with them accordingly.

The Time Management Matrix is actually the fourthgeneration in the series of time management systemsdeveloped to give us more control of our lives. Eachsystem builds on the one before it to move us towardgreater control.

first Generation – Reminders

The first generation of system is about “reminders” of our tasks through notes and to-do lists. While theseare generally helpful, there are two downsides. Firstly, commitments may not be kept, because people dotasks as they appear as on the list or according to whatever may seem important at the time. Secondly, there isa lack of long-term vision. Using lists do not enable us to look ahead or get to the truly important tasks.

second Generation – Planning and Preparation

The second generation improves on that. It is about “planning and preparation” – looking ahead,identifying deadlines and scheduling future events accordingly. Tools used include calendars andappointment books. With this system, we now have personal accountability since our tasks are tied to acertain deadline. We can also be more organized and prepared, such as for meetings and appointments.

However, the downside is we become fixated on what is in the calendar. In our focus to complete our tasks,we may tune out ‘distractions’, such as a call from friends or general family time, even though we maygenuinely value people and relationships!

third Generation – Prioritizing, Planning and Controlling

The third generation addresses that, somewhat. It is about “Prioritizing, planning and controlling ” –including clarifying of values and goal setting based on those values. Daily tasks are subsequently planned inaccordance with these goals. Examples include personal organizer and electronic or paper-basedplanners.

Most of us use this system today. When I was studying in business school, most people were operating by thissystem. Everyone’s common goal was to have a successful career in a reputable company; Subsequently ourdaily tasks revolved around getting good grades, project work, studying, etc.

However, the system does not factor in deeper values such as relationships, spirituality, inner peace which aremore important in the bigger picture. While people become highly successful in goal achievement with thirdgeneration, they eventually reach a point where there is a conflict between their goals and what gives them

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deeper meanings. An example would be overachieving corporates who feel a sense of emptiness despite asuccessful career.

fourth Generation – Quality andPersonal Leadership

The fourth generation system addresses this gap – Itfocuses us on developing deeper value tasks andaccomplishing results. This is done via using Covey’sframework to first classify our daily activities, thendealing with them in a certain way based on whichquadrant they fall in.

Time Management Matrix: The 4Quadrants

Our daily activities can be broken down into 4 quadrants, by urgency and importance:

Quadrant 1: Quadrant of Necessity

You will find your crises or emergencies listed here. This quadrant screams for our attention because of itsurgent and consequential nature. However, many people fall into the trap of getting caught up in Q-1. Byspending all our time here, we become consumed with firefighting everyday instead of crisis prevention.Side effects include stress, burn-out, constant firefighting and resolving problems instead of preventing themin the first place. We often see working level employees, advertising executives, accountants, etc gettingconsumed by this quadrant.

Quadrant 3: Quadrant of Deception

Some people spend a lot of time dealing with Q-3 tasks and confusing them with Q-1 tasks. They think thetasks are important when it is otherwise. For example, you may be spending a lot of time on a certainreport which does not have any implication in your overall job performance or appraisal. Or you may beconstantly attending meetings which have no value-add. This is why Q-3 is called the Quadrant ofDeception. Many times, the urgency of these tasks are due to others’ priorities or needs.

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A good way to differentiate Q-3 from Q-1 task is to ask yourself: “Is this task related to my goals? Does doingthis make any difference to me?” Focusing on Q-3 results in short-term vision and myopia, being out ofcontrol in life and not being able to stick through with your own goals and plans.

Quadrant 4: Quadrant of Waste

This is called the Quadrant of Waste, and for good reason – it contains all your time wasters. People livingunconsciously have a tendency to hover around primarily Q-3 and Q-4. After resolving Q-3 tasks, they fallinto auto-pilot mode and spend time doing Q-4 tasks. This can be because they have nothing better to do orthey are procrastinating on things they should be doing. This quadrant puts no value in our lives whatsoever.Focusing on Q-4 results in irresponsible behaviour and dependency on other people.

Quadrant 2: Quadrant of Quality and Personal Leadership

Q-2 is magic quadrant we need to focus on – It is the most important, yet most often neglected. Q-2 is allabout having personal leadership and focusing on the important tasks that matter. Q-2 tasks shouldreflect your life goals and desires, which are laddered down from your life purpose. To correctly define them,you need to be clear on your life purpose first – so if you have not discovered your life purpose, please readmy 7-parter series on Discovering Your Purpose!

There are two reasons why Q-2 tasks are often neglected. Firstly, Q-2 tasks never become urgent until it is toolate. For example, taking care of your health or pursuing your dreams. Secondly, compared to otherquadrants, these tasks require more investment of energy and time for results, which conflicts with society’sobsession with instant results nowadays.

However, Q-2 tasks also reap the most reward in the long run. Think about it as sowing seeds for harvest inthe future. Imagine you are a lawyer whose dream career is to be a literature teacher (Q-2 task). Whileworking as a lawyer, you may start studying for a degree in literature. You may also take up teaching courses.While these will take a few years till completion, you have planted the seed. You know it is only a matter oftime before you will enjoy the harvest – being a full-fledged teacher. Another example would be relationships.You may desire to get into a rewarding, long-term relationship (a Q-2 task). Acting on the Q-2 task meansstarting the conscious search for your prospective partner now. Even though it may take you a while beforeyou find someone you desire, you will be able to experience benefits earlier than if you procrastinate on it.

After you plant your seeds, you will need to continuously put in time and effort to manage your plants.However, it is simply a matter of time before you can reap the rewards of your labour. On the other hand, ifyou keep on putting off these Q-2 tasks, the status quo will remain the same, whether 5, 10, 20 years fromnow. Focusing on Q-2 will result in vision, perspective, balance and control.

Think about all the activities you engage in a typical day. Now, classify them into their respective quadrants.How time and effort do you spend on each quadrant? Are there any tasks in Q-2 which you are neglecting?Strengthening your relationship with your family perhaps? Finding your life partner? Your health? Orinvesting in personal development?

To become effective, you need to consciously alter your behaviour to the following key principles:

Q-1 Tasks: Manage immediately to get them out of the way. Spend the required effort needed suchthat they do not blow out of portion

1.

Q-2 Tasks: Focus disproportionately due to the high payoff from the investment.2.Q-3 Tasks: Delegate to other people due to their urgent nature, but get minimally involved in them asthey are not important

3.


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Q-4 Tasks: Dump them as they are neither important nor urgent4.

The table below illustrates a breakdown of how effective people would allocate their time. The bigger the sizeof the quadrant, the more the time spent:

Notice that Q-2 takes up the bulk, followed by Q-1. Q-3 takes up a minimal proportion. Q-4 tasks arecompletely out of the picture.

Applying Time Management Matrix to my life

If you are living in an unconscious manner, you will find majority of your time spent in Q-1, Q-3 and Q-4, invarying proportions. When i first read about the framework 2.5 years ago, I was surprised to know that manyof my Q-2 tasks were neglected. Most of my time was spent in Q-1, followed by Q-3 and finally Q-4. Forexample at work, I would be spending majority of the time firefighting and dealing with crises. This wasespecially so since I was in project management, where delivery against timelines was critical. I was alsounconsciously investing in Q-3 tasks and thinking that I was being productive, such as writing unnecessaryreports, attending unimportant meetings, dealing with others’ requests.

After I was done with Q-1 and Q-3 tasks at work, I would feel too tired to do any brain work. I would moveto Q-4 tasks, which were basically mindless. These included random web surfing, rewatching drama series,shopping and playing games. On the other hand, I had Q-2 tasks such as eating healthier, exercising, pursuingmy passion in helping people, improving my relationship with my family, etc. While I recognized them asimportant, they were always last on the to-do list simply because they did not seem urgent at the moment. If Iever do plan to do a Q-2 task, I almost never get to it because Q-1 and Q-3 tasks always take centerstage. Q-2tasks were always left for tomorrow or next time, since they were not urgent.

About a year ago, I reviewed the framework again. Guess what I found? There was almost no change in howmy time was spent across the 4 quadrants! Despite investing so much time and being incredibly efficient inQ-1 and Q-3 tasks, my life not seem very different vs a year ago. Despite wanting to work on Q-2 tasks, theykept moving to the back burner because there were always new, ‘pressing’ things emerging everyday, takingup my time and attention. By constantly allowing myself to be embroiled in urgent tasks, I did not leave anytime for Q-2, the most important areas of my life. It became clear that unless I consciously choose toprioritize Q-2 tasks, nothing is ever going to happen in that area.

Understanding that was a powerful epiphany for me. From then on, I started to be more proactive in my Q-2tasks. I clearly articulated my Q-2 goals in a document. I started developing strategies and plans towardachieving those goals. For every activity that I do, I would evaluate first to see which quadrant it lies underbefore doing it. Depending on the quadrant, I would either do it myself (Q-1), spend disproportionatetime/effort (Q-2) delegate it (Q-3) or dump it (Q-4).

It was not entirely easy too – When I first started this, there were many times I would slip into my previousresponse model. However, as time passed, I started seeing the benefits of investing in Q-2 tasks. For example,after I started working on eating healthier and exercising more often, I was visibly losing weight. It furtherreinforced to me the importance of sowing the seeds of Q-2 goals. Today, I find myself naturally orienting


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toward Q-2 tasks. The realization that Q-2 is essentially a ‘gold mine’ makes me prioritize it over everyother activity. My natural behaviour toward Q-1, Q-3 and Q-4 tasks is to get them out of the way so that Ican go back to focusing on Q-2, because I know this is what will give me the biggest rewards in the long run.

Next Step: Apply the model to your life

Try adopting this model for a few months and see how it works for you. The next time you do something,evaluate which quadrant it falls under. Is it Q-1, Q-2, Q-3 or Q-4? Are you adopting the right mode of actionfor a task of this quadrant? What are the Q-2 tasks you are neglecting in your life? Start working on themtoday and in time to come, you will find yourself reaping the fruits of your labour.

This is part of the Maximizing Productivity series. Be sure to check out the full series:

Become the Master of Your TimePut First Things FirstAchieve More With Less In Life Using 80/20 Principle (3-part series)Get Your Big Rocks In FirstLaw of Diminishing ReturnsBoost Your Productivity in 50 WaysThe 8 Habits of Highly Productive People | Manifesto version

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Filed in: Awareness & Growth, Goals & Success, Productivity & GTD | Written by Celes on Dec 28, 2008Tags: big rocks, Effectiveness, prioritization, procrastination, productivity, quadrant 2, Time Management,time management matrix5 Responses to "Put First Things First" | Share Your Thoughts

Turning Comments Off says:July 21, 2009 at 6:11 pm

[...] if I am to evaluate what will be a more effective use of my time, I can add more value to morepeople by investing my time to write more articles rather than [...]

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Alisha Chikodi says:August 24, 2010 at 8:53 pm

Hey Celes have been reading some of your articles in the past couple of days….i ve literally beensleepwalking through my life and reading our blogs has really inspired me to find my passion fuel it andstart living differently….i just wanted to say a big thank you :-)i v set aside a time at work each day so i can read different articles thanks againAlisha

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ashraf says:October 23, 2010 at 6:56 am

hello there.

This is the first time I stumbled upon you blog. and i like it a lot. I’ve been sharing Stephan Covey’s 7Habits in my blog too. But yours are more detailed and well explained. I hope you continue to commityourselves to this contribution to humanity.

Cheers,ashraf

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shanti says:November 8, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Hi there,First time I came across your blog. very helpful. Keep up the good work.

Thank you.Cheers,shanti :wink:

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Umair says:December 10, 2010 at 9:38 am

Hi Celes !!

Today i saw your website for the first time and went through the above article.Its truely well written,specially the way you have explained each and every point with examples from the real life isamazing.Thankyou very much for writing such an excellent article.Keep up the good work n i willkeep following ur articles in the future too :)….regardsumair khan

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