You can use the 4 quadrants to prioritise your to-do list. There are many ways to use the time management matrix in your life but here are 3 ideas that you can start using straight away: Prioritise Your To-Do List This way you’ll end up achieving a lot more of what you want in your life and ultimately be more fulfilled. If they do then they need to be prioritised over activities that might demand your time but don’t actually contribute to the achievement of your goals. The purpose of using the time management matrix is to question whether certain activities bring you closer to your goals or not. Plus, when you focus on Quadrant 2, it means you’re thinking ahead, working on the roots, and preventing crises from happening in the first place! This helps you implement the Pareto Principle – 80% of your results come from 20% of your time. You’ll then end up spending even more time in Quadrant 1 dealing with all the health issues that came as a result. Everyone knows its important to exercise but so few people do because its not urgent right now.īut if you don’t exercise now, eventually it could become urgent if you have a heart attack. If you spend more time on Quadrant 2 activities now when they’re not urgent you will minimise the number of Quadrant 1 activities in the future.Ī great example of this is exercising. “THE KEY IS NOT TO PRIORITIZE WHAT’S ON YOUR SCHEDULE, BUT TO SCHEDULE YOUR PRIORITIES.” – STEPHEN COVEY Quadrant 2 activities, on the other hand, don’t have the same immediate consequences, so we’re less likely to attend to them. And often they are pleasant, easy, fun to do. If you’re like most people you probably spend most of your time on activities that either fall into Quadrant 1 or Quadrant 3 because they’re urgent.Ĭovey writes: “Urgent matters are usually visible. Whilst everyone needs a bit of down time and I understand escapism it’s better to have that planned for in your to do list.
Quadrant 4 is all about surfing the internet without purpose, wasting time browsing social media, watching endless hours of TV. Quadrant 4 activities are basically time wasting activities that are not urgent and offer no value. Quadrant 4 – not urgent and not important
If you find that you’re constantly getting interrupted by others then it might be an idea to set up a designated time to deal with such things all in one go to save yourself time. Ideally you want to eliminate all of Quadrant 3 by either delegating it out to others or by politely saying No. This would be stuff like interruptions, some meetings and phone calls. The third quadrant would contain items that appear to have a high urgency, but are not at all important. This is where highly effective people focus the most. Quadrant 2 activities are the ones that will really make the difference to your life and help you accomplish a lot more of what you want. Things like strategic planning, relationship building, exercise, preparation, education and other personal development activities – all things we know we need to do but somehow seldom get around to actually doing, because they don’t feel urgent. Quadrant 2 comprises of things that are not urgent right now but important. This leads to stress, burnout, and constantly putting out fires. The problem is if you spend most of your time managing crises and problems, it’ll keep getting bigger and bigger until it consumes you. The space is reserved for emergencies and extremely important deadlines. Quadrant 1 would only contain those activities and responsibilities that require your immediate attention. The activities in Quadrant 1 would comprise of things that could not have been forseen and things that could have, if they were planned for. The 4 Quadrants Explained Quadrant 1 – urgent and important Note: Stephen Covey’s 4 Quadrants are also referred to as the Time Management Matrix or Eisenhower’s Urgent-Important Principle.Īs you can see, the two main criteria on which you evaluate tasks are urgency and importance. “The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.” – Stephen Covey The Time Management Matrix It’s introduced as part of Habit 3, “Put first things first,” and it’s designed to help you become a more effective self-manager. One effective principle for doing so comes from Stephen Covey’s bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.Įven though it was originally published in 1989 a lot the ideas to achieve success are still very relevant, especially Stephen Covey’s 4 quadrants or time management matrix.īy using Stephen Covey’s 4 quadrants you’ll be able to schedule your week according to what’s most important to you and what will have the most meaningful results. We all get the same 24 hours in a day so how is it that some people are able to accomplish so much more than the rest of the population? And how can you start doing the same?