Parma Plan It: Put First Things First

I don't know about you, but I need a few refreshers from our 7 Habits training. Starting with the time management domains. It is easy to get bogged down in quadrants III and IV and spend so much time on tasks that are ultimately not important. It is also easy to let quadrant I take over our lives. The goal is to spend more time in quadrant II, but how do we make this happen? This blog has been started now for a couple weeks, but....you guessed it, I just haven't had TIME to finish it, or my time has been absorbed by urgent or unimportant interruptions. I spent some time rereading the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People....let me share:

Take a minute and answer a couple questions before reading this blog:

1. What one thing could you do that you aren't doing now that if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your personal life?

2. What one thing in your professional life would bring similar results?

There are two factors that define an activity, urgent and important. Urgent activities require immediate attention. Urgent things act on us, they are usually visible, they press on us, they insist action. They are often unimportant.

Important activities have to do with results. They contribute to our mission, our values, our high priority goals. We react to urgent matters while important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity. We have to act to seize opportunity, to make things happen. If we don't practice Habit 2 (Begin with the End in Mind), if we don't have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire, we are easily distracted and diverted into responding to the urgent.

We all have Quadrant I activities in our lives. However, we can control whether or not we allow these activities and this Quadrant to control us and consume us. If we allow ourselves to focus on Quadrant I, it will get bigger and bigger until it dominates all our time. At this point, the only relief from Quadrant I activities is to escape to Quadrant IV, the not important, not urgent activities. This leave 90% of time being spent in Quadrant I and 10% in Quadrant IV and 0% in Quadrants II and III.

Covey states that, "People who spend time almost exclusively in Quadrants III and IV basically lead irresponsible lives." Effective people, highly effective people, strive to stay out of Quadrants III and IV, because urgent or not, they are not important, especially to our life mission, our values or our high priority goals.

Quadrant II is where we strive to spend the majority of our time. This is the heart of effective personal management. These are the activities that are not urgent, but are important. It deals with things like building relationships, long-range planning, exercising, preparation, creating a mission statement.....basically, the things we know we need to do but often don't get around to doing because they aren't urgent and we have allowed all our time to be consumed by urgent or unimportant activities.

Take a look at the time management matrix and think back to your answers to the two questions at the beginning of this blog. What quadrant do they fit in? Are they important? Are they urgent? More than likely they fit into Quadrant II. They are obviously important but not urgent. Because they aren't urgent, you often don't do them. So, What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life? Quadrant II activities have that kind of impact. Covey contends that our effectiveness will take "quantum leaps"when we do them.

QUADRANT II EXAMPLES:

Frequently buying flowers for your wife/girlfriend “just because”

Eating healthy and exercising to avoid future health issues

Preventative maintenance on your home or car

Reading, Learning, and Education

Forming bonds and strengthening relationships with your friends and family

Self renewal and spending time on things that inspire and uplift you

Take some quantum leaps this week! Focus on what matters most, what is truly important! Be intentional in how you spend your time and be focused on your mission, Put First Things First. Spend time doing the activities that help you reach your "end in mind".

Check out this app, 7 Habits Life Balancer.

We are teaching our future lawyers, doctors, teachers, PRESIDENTS!! Bodhi Williams is getting a head start.....

Articles Worth Reading and Links worth Checking out:

April Is School Library Month - Look at these slides on the impact of school libraries.

Every day we have a choice to make - Thank you for sharing Courtney Thelen

8 Things to Look For in Today's Classroom - by +George Couros @gcouros

Common Core Math - The New Way - Interesting explanation of WHY the "old fashion way" isn't helping our kids have better number sense.

Transforming Charts into Tools

Pinterest page for Writing Workshop

Classroom Blogs - A great resource for blogging with our students

10 Risks Every Teacher Should Take with Their Class - shared by @TechMinock

Videos Worth Watching:

First Things First: Matthew 6:33 - Don't forget to touch 1st Base!