Habit #3- Putting First Things First

We last discussed the Leadership habit of Begin With End in Mind, and now we are diving into the flip side of that, which is called, the "Management" habit, Habit #3. This Habit is entiteld, "Put First Things First". The second habit deals with guidance, and this one deals with prioritization. Some people come by this skill naturally, they can just tell what needs to be done in what order. Other people struggle with this one. Whether you're a master at knowing the order in which to do things or you find yourself plunged in over your head, let me share with you a concept presented in the book for physically and visually categorizing your activities.

In the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Covey shares this little chart with his audience. The chart looks like this: on a piece of paper, draw a square, fairly large. Now draw a cross in the middle so that there are four equal sections to this square. In the upper left corner, label the quadrant "Urgent/Important", in the upper right, label it, "Not Urgent/Important", in the lower left, label it, "Urgent/Not Important", and in the lower right, label it, "Not Urgent/ Not Important".

Now, what does into each of these quadrants? The first quadrant, "Urgent/Important" would include things that are immediate and need to be handled, like an important phone call. It's right now, and it needs to be addressed. (With caller ID, we can determine which phone calls are important and not.) These are also activities that can start to make our day hectic. It takes a fair amount of descernment to weed out the things that we really think are "Urgent/Important". Allowing too much to be plunked down in this quadrant makes for that frantic state of mind that so many Americans live in nowadays. After you write down things you think are Urgent/Important, go back through it and take a closer look at the things you wrote and see if the items can't be recategorized.

In the next quadrant, we have things that make a HUGE difference in our days if given the proper attention. This is where management comes into play. Spending time in the "Not Urgent/Important" quadrant will eventually give us more time/ more peace of mind on down the road. Things like getting to know a co-worker so you can understand them better and have a more peaceful work space falls into this category. It's not something that needs to be done right away, but will happen over time. It's not something that you should neglect because this person could be in the cubicle next to yours and you interact frequently. So, it is important that your relationship grows, but it's not a pressing matter, thus, "Not Urgent". This is the quadrant that you want to be able to visit and work from as much as possible.

The next quadrant is the "Urgent/Not Important" category. This one I call the TV quadrant (assuming you don't have Tivo). Say you have a favorite TV show you like to watch. It's Urgent, becuase it's on right now, but it's Not Important becuase it's not going to make a huge difference in your day if you miss this program.

The last quadrant is the qaudrant that is full of time-wasters. I call this one the games quadrant. I don't know about you, but I spend WAY too much time on Farmville, and this is an activity that is neither Urgent nor Important. Maybe your game is solitaire on your computer, or internet poker. Whatever the activity is, it's energy spent that could be channeled into something more effective and productive. This is the quadrant that if we can eliminate the activities spent here, or at least reduce the amount of time we spend here, we will free up more time to be devoted to that magical second quadrant of "Not Urgent/Important." Take a look at what is written in this quadrant and see if there are things that you can take out all together, or at least start by reducing the amount of time spent on these activities.

Now that I have introduced you to the concepts of Habit #3, Putting First Things First, sit down with your own pen and paper and look at where you spend your time. Whether you are a working parent or a stay-at-home parent, this activity can help bring your awareness to what is actually going on in your day. You may be surprised by what you uncover.

In my next entry, I will share with you my personal experience with this activity, and how it has helped me put some order to my day as a stay-at-home mom with virtually no schedule. How do I prioritize between the demands of a toddler and keeping the house in working order? What falls into the different categories with respect to Carrick, Corey's work, and my own personal needs? All these and more questions will be answered in the next installment of "My Ten Mommy Minutes"!