| In his book
First Things First, Stephen Covey presents
a four-cell matrix with these elements:
- Quadrant One
– Matters that are both important and urgent. Includes crises,
pressing problems, deadline driven projects, meetings, preparations.
- Quadrant Two
– Matters that are important and not urgent. Includes preparation,
prevention, planning, relationship building, empowerment, personal development,
and personal health.
- Quadrant Three
– Matters that are urgent but not important. Includes interruptions,
mail, reports, and meetings.
- Quadrant Four
– Matters that are neither important nor urgent. Includes trivia,
busy work, some phone calls, irrelevant mail, excessive TV, escape activities.
To reduce time pressure while improving
our effectiveness we need to spend as little time as possible in Quadrant
Four and as much time as possible in Quadrant One.
|
Quadrant One
Urgent
and
Important
|
Quadrant Two
Not Urgent
but
Important
|
Quadrant Three
Not Important
but
Urgent
|
Quadrant Four
Not Urgent
and
Not Important
|
|
