Put First Things First

This week we read a summary of the “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. In it we learned that the seven habits are: Be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win/win, seek first to understand…then to be understood, synergize and sharpen the saw. All of these steps resonated with me but the one that stood out the most was putting first things first. In this section we were presented with four basic types of activities: Important and urgent, important and non-urgent, urgent but not important, and not urgent or important. I loved this breakout because instantly I started to categorize all of the things that I do in a day into each one of these boxes. In the reading it says, “The heart of effective personal time management is to spend the maximum time possible doing important jobs in a non-urgent atmosphere that increase your efficiency.” I have found that as I have spent time in this quadrant working on assignments for school that are not due immediately or working on a lesson for church that is two weeks away, that my end product is something of much better quality than if I throw something together quickly right before it is due. I love spending time in the unimportant/non-urgent box, but I have to cut my time there drastically in order to be successful in the other areas of my life. Going forward I will use these categories to ensure I am staying on the right track and managing my time appropriately.