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About
Published in 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a self-help book written by Stephen Covey that has helped shape leaders all around the globe with 25 million copies sold and translated to 38 different languages. This book provides step-by-step actions we can take to achieve holistic effectiveness.

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Habit 3: Put First Things First

Recall: Habit 1: Be proactive is about having the initiative to take charge of your life. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind is about having a clear vision on what you want to achieve, or the first creation.

Habit 3 is the second creation, the process of execution and actualization — putting first things first and proper time management. What is one change that you could make in your daily routine that would aid you in achieving your goals?

Time Mangement

There are four generations of time management. You might identify yourself with one of these:

To-do lists: There are no prioritization, no schedule, just a checklist of activities that you want to accomplish.
Calendar: There is a schedule and a sense of time, but without identifying values and priorities, second generation time managers will be slaves to their planners. The calendar has to work for us.
Efficiency: Planning is goal-oriented and identifies productive and counterproductive activities. However, this could be at the expense of recreation and spontaneity. Such schedules are usually workaholic.
Effectiveness: This focuses on relationships and results rather than things and time. It's less about managing time but managing ourselves. This is the highest form of "time" management.

Important / Urgent Matrix

In effectively implementing the fourth generation of "time" management, we must identify the two factors that describes an activity:

Urgent: things that demand immediate attention (e.g. phone ringing, social media notification, deadlines)
Important: things that produce results that are in line with mission and values

"[It's easy to] react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity."

CRITERIA	URGENT	NOT URGENT
IMPORTANT	I. pressing problems	II. PC activities, relationship building
NOT IMPORTANT	III. some meetings, popular activities	IV. time wasters

Fourth generation "time" managers focus their efforts on quadrant 2 activities, limit quadrant 1 activities, and eliminate quadrant 3 and 4 activities. The most common obstacles that hinder us from achieving this are:

The inability to prioritize
The inability to desire or organize around those priorities
The lack of discipline to execute around them and to stay with your priorities

Most people believe that they struggle at discipline. Covey, the author, thinks that this is not the case. The problem is that they do not have a clear image of what their goals are. Habit 2 has to be in place. FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION. The way we spend their time is actually a reflection of how we see our priorities.

Now, if we have our priorities in place, to consider yourself a quadrant 2 organizer, you must meet six important criteria:

Coherence: There must be harmony among you, your roles and goals, your mission, and your schedule. Always ask yourself if your schedule is reflective of your goals.
Balance: Keep in mind ALL important aspects in your life like health, family, etc.
Focus: Organize on a weekly basis while adapting daily.
"People" Dimension: Be efficient with your time, but be effective with people.
Flexibility: Again, a planner should work for you to suit your needs. You do not work for your schedule.
Portability: You may want to have your planner with you for most of the time.

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities."

Living a holistic and balanced life does not entail having to overextend yourself and trying to be at many places at once. Realize first that there may be some dumb stuff in our schedule that we can remove, and reinvest that time on your highest priorities.

Thank you!

The next chapter discusses how we can be interdependent, a principle that reflects the next three habits. I already made a summary of the first two habits, Habit 1: Be proactive and Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind, so be sure to check them out!