The only place to get time for Quadrant II in the beginning is from Quadrants III and IV. You canât ignore the urgent and important activities of Quadrant I, although it will shrink in size as you spend more time with prevention and preparation in Quadrant II. But the initial time for Quadrant II has to come out of III and IV.
Related Quotes
âEffective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes. Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time. Finally they consolidate their âdiscretionaryâ time into the largest possible continuing units. This three-step process:
⢠recording time,
⢠managing time, and
⢠consolidating time
is the foundation of executive effectiveness.
âEffective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes. Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time. Finally they consolidate their âdiscretionaryâ time into the largest possible continuing units. This three-step process:
⢠recording time,
⢠managing time, and
⢠consolidating time
is the foundation of executive effectiveness.
Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they arenât important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II.
Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are not urgent, but are important. It deals with things like building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, long-range planning, exercising, preventive maintenance, preparationâall those things we know we need to do, but somehow seldom get around to doing, because they arenât urgent.
SELECTING GOALS. The next step is to think of one or two important results
you feel you should accomplish in each role during the next seven days. These would be recorded as goals. At least some of these goals should reflect Quadrant II activities. Ideally,
these weekly goals would be tied to the longer-term goals you have identified in conjunction with your personal mission statement. But even if you havenât written your mission statement, you can get a feeling, a sense, of what is important as you consider each of your roles and one or two goals for each role.
DAILY ADAPTING. With Quadrant II weekly organizing, daily planning becomes more a function of daily adapting, of prioritizing activities and responding to unanticipated events, relationships, and experiences in a meaningful way.