Being highly effective

I’m currently reading the 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey which was recommended by Professor Norman Staines (Incus Associates Ltd) during his workshop on enhancing PhD supervision skills.

This morning I awoke at 4.50am with several thoughts buzzing through my head and the quadrants seemed to be a very useful concept for those struggling with work overload (me):

Covey talks about 4 quadrants with tasks that are important and/or urgent (I = Important & Urgent, II = Important but not Urgent, III=Not important but Urgent, and IV = Not important and not Urgent). We tend to spend a lot of time in I and III with the odd excursion into IV (the fun stuff) at the expense of II. The problem is that II is what makes people highly effective - the non-urgent but important tasks of planning, prioritising, communicating, reflecting, blogging etc. Alik Levin’s blog sums this up nicely.

Of course you have to know where you are heading (your goals) to know what is important and not, and you have to be proactive too, otherwise everyone else’s priorities will find their way into your to-do list via email before you can set up your “I’m out of the office” response...