“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower
Our daily activities can be divided to lie into one of the following four quadrants
The image says it all. The upper right quadrant is where the real magic happens.
Most of us are reluctant to do the activities in Quadrant II (Not Urgent Yet Important) and we tend to keep procrastinating them. Either we are -
- too busy handling urgent Quadrant I (Urgent and Important) and Quadrant III (Urgent and Not-Important) tasks or
- we are too comfortable in enjoying our Quadrant IV (Not-Urgent and Not-Important) activities to make time for Quadrant II.
But Quadrant II activities like
- exercising
- reading
- spending time with loved-ones
- learning new skills
- strengthening relationships
- meditating
are the ones that build up compound time. They may seem to take more time in the beginnning, but they pay compound interest to the investment made in the long run.
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
― Benjamin Franklin
I urge you to draw a similar matrix for yourself and see where you are spending your time.
Alternatively make a list of tasks on your mind and rank them in the order of importance and put them in the quadrants to plan your day accordingly.
Thanks for Reading!
I also wrote an article about my learnings from 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'. Please find it here.
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