Lessons from Stephen Covey

The most important lesson I learned came from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. In that book, Covey presents a technique for prioritizing that impressed me greatly and soon became a central part of my planning process. 

Divide your tasks, Covey says, into four categories: 

• Not important and not urgent
• Not important but urgent
• Important but not urgent
• Important and urgent

In the "not important and not urgent" category, you would put such things as: 

• Catching up on office gossip
• Shopping online for personal items
• Answering unimportant phone calls
• Responding to unimportant e-mails
• In the "not important but urgent" category, you would include: 
• Returning phone calls from pesky salespeople
• Making last-minute preparations for an office party
• Attending a required meeting that doesn't help your career
• Planning for a meeting that doesn't matter

In the "important and urgent" category, you might list: 

• Making last-minute preparations for an important meeting with the boss
• Making last-minute sales calls to key clients
• Solving unexpected problems
• And, finally, in the "important but not urgent" category, you might include: 
• Learning how to write better
• Learning how to speak better
• Learning how to think better
• Working on your novel
• Getting down to a healthy weight

If you discover that you are spending a lot of time on unimportant tasks, you've got a serious problem. Unless you change your ways, you're unlikely to achieve any of your important goals. 
So which tasks should you give priority to? 

In Seven Habits, Covey says that most people think they should give priority to important and urgent tasks. But this is a mistake. "It's like the pounding surf," he says. "A huge problem comes and knocks you down and you're wiped out. You struggle back up only to face another one that knocks you down and slams you to the ground." You are "literally beat up by problems all day every day." 

The important but not urgent tasks whisper, while the urgent tasks shout. But there is a way to get that critical but quiet stuff done in four simple steps: 

Step 1. When planning your day, divide your tasks into Covey's four categories: not important and not urgent, not important but urgent, important but not urgent, and important and urgent.

Step 2. You will, of course, have to do or the urgent tasks - at least until you get better at taking charge of your schedule. And you will have to find a way to get rid of the tasks that are not important and not urgent. But make sure you include one important but not urgent task that, when completed, will move you closer to one of your long-term goals.

Step 3. Highlight that important but not urgent task on your to-do list. Make it your number one priority for the day.

Step 4. Do that task first - before you do anything else.

Initially, you will find it difficult to do an important but not urgent task first. There are reasons for that. 

• Since it is not urgent, you don't feel like it's important. But it is.
• Since it supports a goal you've been putting off, you are in the habit of neglecting it.
• You are in the habit of neglecting it because you don't think it's important and because you might be afraid of doing it.
• You might be afraid of doing it because you know, deep down inside, that it will change your life. And change, even good change, is scary.

But once you start using this little four-step technique, you'll notice something right away. 

The first thing you'll notice is how good you feel. Accomplishing something you've been putting off is energizing. It will erase some doubts you have about yourself - doubts caused by years of "never getting to" your long-term goals.