November 19, 2015

Time Management, Made Easy

Missed deadlines and harried schedules will not get you ahead in work or life. Author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey created this time management grid which easily organizes tasks into four quadrants:

Quadrant I: Immediate and important deadlines
Quadrant II: Long-term goals
Quadrant III: Distracting or lower priority activities; interruptions
Quadrant IV: Activities yielding little value

Urgent

Not Urgent

Important

Quadrant I:

Urgent &
Important

(i.e. Immediate Deadlines)

Quadrant II:

Not Urgent &
Important

(i.e. Long-term Goals)

Not
Important

Quadrant III:

Urgent &
Not Important

(i.e. Distractions, Interruptions)

Quadrant IV:

Not Urgent &
Not Important

(i.e. Lower-value Activities)

Take your current “to-do” list and sort the items into their proper locations. You may wish to reallocate activities given certain time frames or deadlines. Ultimately, doing the most important things first will put you back in control of your time, once and for all.