Living in Quadrant Two

Recently I’ve been reading “the 7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen R. Covey and last night I came across his concept of the Time Management Matrix. This pretty much explains the four different types of tasks that we spend time on in terms of what kind of importance they have and how urgent they are. He explains that often people get turned towards completing mostly urgent tasks (which is anything the requires immediate attention and acts on us) and they do this to the point where everything becomes urgent (and often still unimportant) and we don’t have time for the important tasks that truly develop us and allow us to show our worth.

These tasks that provide development often live in quadrant 2 where they are important but not urgent. People forget these however if you categorise the tasks in your life, you will likely find that many of the most rewarding activities in our life are found in this quadrant. These may include relationship building, planning and most of the activities which you either enjoy or are likely to allow you to actually develop your career as well as making you a better all-around person.

He also explains that when a focus is put on completing these tasks in a more proactive approach, you often have less of the important and urgent crises which might occur otherwise. To add to this, when these do still occur, you are better equipped to deal with them.

So why do I bring this up? I think that this particular concept that was brought up struck a chord with me based on how I have been living and it also has a particular relevance on the times we are currently in.

See when I think about it, the way I act a large amount of the time is dealing with activities in quadrant 1 and 3. Dealing with things that whether they are important or not, are urgent and acting upon me. This may be e-mails, busy work or even may take place as work for university that has become urgent as I have left it to be completed only right as it is required. While this may not produce overtly negative results short term, over time this compounds and results in feeling rushed and like you never have time to work on the important stuff. Therefore it is important shift our focus and work as much as we can on the activities in quadrant 2 so that eventually as much work as possible is completed here. For me personally this work can be building relationships by both working on those I currently have and forming new ones, focusing on the people around me, planning and goal setting as well as having a focus on learning for me rather than just to know the minimum required to pass a subject.

But where does this relate in any way to the current time that we are in? It’s because by everyone being put into self-isolation away from our normal commitments and time frames, we have as much time as we need to work within quadrant 2. While there still may be different time-bound activities which are regarded as urgent or there may be different distractions from work found at home, our time is also more flexible. I know that part of the reason that I never get stuck into my quadrant 2 tasks normally is because I always have the excuse of not having time because I’m either working or have other study to do or a number of other reasons I tell myself. I’m sure that most people who may be reading this can relate.

Now however, I have more time to focus on my learning and career development and relationships than I have ever had. For me personally there is no point in the foreseeable future that I am going to be just a full-time student rather than a student studying full time while also having two jobs and other commitments to attend to. Therefore I see it as my responsibility to make the most of the time I do have and work on these other tasks.

The first thing I am focusing on is how I am going to build relationships. While we are in self isolation, this whole technology thing allows us to communicate with just about anyone and because of that I am going to make sure to reach out to my friends and family who I don’t normally get to speak with as often as I would like to. This should also help me in being more positive in my outlook as I will be communicating with those I care about. Building relationships also has implications in a career development way. I am going to look at creating new connections in my industry as well as trying to learn from those more experienced and knowledgeable than me. These relationships I should build while we are in quarantine (both professional and personal) should benefit me in the long run even once we get past this.

The second important activity I am focusing on is learning and becoming more knowledgeable in my field. If I come out of the quarantine understanding more than I went into it with, then that is a positive for me. I am not only putting a large focus on my studies at university making sure I put myself in a position to succeed there, but also looking at how I can learn as much as I can about the things I enjoy and what is relative to my career. This kind of proactive learning is what I hope can put me ahead to succeed while I am still in my degree.

The final aspect of quadrant two which I am going to work on is how I plan and define goals. I am going to work on developing a mission statement (also a concept from this book) which gives me a clear, defined path as to what I should be working towards and how I should do it given my priorities. Also planning is going to be important in terms of “periodizing my career”. This is something that Brett Bartholomew speaks about in terms of setting out a path that you should follow to achieve your overall goals. This is not to say that this path should or can be followed exactly as you move through life, however it gives you a way to make sure that each of your actions each day are working towards your goals. Then, if your goals or circumstances change throughout this path, you can adjust and still have a better idea of how to do this due to your mission statement.

Those are three ways I am going to implement this concept of the Time Management Matrix to my life. As I said earlier, I found this concept particularly powerful due to how much it applies to me and even more to this time we are in. I hope that this made sense in terms of how you can apply this concept to your life and use it to get the most out of the time we do have to make a difference.

I think I enjoyed applying this concept from the book in a bunch of words so there possibly may be more posts like this one in the future.

If you have any questions regarding this or would like to share how you are going to work in quadrant 2 more, than feel free to comment or message me directly.

Thanks for reading,

Con Economou