"
The urgent problems are seldom the important ones." - Dwight D. Eisenhower.
As I Have promised in my previous post about
time management, here is one of the most popular urgency/importance matrix models, or the so called “Eisenhower Matrix”:
| | URGENT | NOT URGENT |
| | I | II |
I
M
P
O
R
T
A
N
T | - Dealing with crisis
- Deadlines
- Urgent tasks
- Phone calls, that can't be delayed
| - New projects planning
- Achievments and results
- Coordinating and communicating
- Alternative projects and opportunities
- Training
|
| | III | IV |
N OT
I
M
P
O
R
T
A
N
T | - Ordinary phone calls
- General meetings
- Other peoples messes
- Interruptions, junk mail
| - Chatting with coworkers
- Some mail, phone calls
- Routine work
- Relaxation
|
People that stream to be successful usually avoid doing things from third and fourth quadrants
First quadrant – if you live according to these rules, it can result in a
stress and personal crisis. It’s even worse because in the long run you can’t live without it and you become what people call workaholic
J So if at the end of the day you don’t want to stop working, you should really think twice about the way you live, the way you manage your time.
Second quadrant –
you control the situation. You are the leader, you influence decisions, work methods, priorities. There is enough time for your relationships with coworkers, plan and prevent crisis.
Third quadrant –
short term focus. Usually people that fall into this quadrant think that there work is extremely important and urgent, when in real life it is not, they just waste a lot of time for long phone calls, emails etc.
Fourth quadrant - what we can call
time wasting. You are not getting paid to play online games or read news for a couple hours a day.
So you manage the time? or the time manages you? It's all up to us :). I hope
Comindwork will help you to be more successful!