I was just re-reading Stephen R. Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." (Simon & Schuster, New York.). We recently had a customer service meeting with our staff that the fact that we should try to work in Quadrant II came up during the meeting. Doing tasks, both business and personal, in Quadrant II will take a lot of stress out of your life. If you have not read the book I would recommend it highly. Here is the way that Covey breaks down tasks into four quadrants:
Quadrant I: Urgent and important. This category includes problems and crises. For example, you might have a contract review with your biggest customer, critical meetings with a deadline and other pressing issues that can potentially hurt important projects. However, if you only focus on this quadrant, it can grow and eventually dominate other aspects of your life.
Quadrant II: Important but not urgent. This is where you should focus most of your energy and yet these tasks and activities are often overlooked. They include doing those tasks that need to be done but not waiting until the last minute, relationship building, relaxation and strategic planning that, if done well and consistently, make a huge difference in your life. The time spent here must come from the following two quadrants. If you don’t get these things done they either become Quadrant I or go away.
Quadrant III: Urgent but not important. Many business owners find themselves stuck here, handling tasks are time sensitive but not important.
Quadrant IV: Not urgent and not important. This includes complete time wasters that have no relevance to your life. Examples include non-business Internet surfing for long periods of time and watching too much television.
