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I clearly remember as a wet-behind-the-ears youth complaining bitterly to my old boss, David Williams, that I was too busy and could never manage to complete everything that needed to be done. He laughed, collected a piece of that old fashioned green line-printer paper and sat down. He said:

This is the most important lesson that you will learn this week so pay attention because I am only going to tell you once

He pulled out a pencil and drew a large cross on the paper dividing it into four quadrants, numbering them 1, 2, 3 and 4. Above box 1 and 3 he wrote URGENT in capitals, above box 2 and 4 he wrote NOT URGENT in capitals. To The left of box 1 and 2 he wrote IMPORTANT and to the left of box 3 and 4 he wrote NOT IMPORTANT.

  URGENT NOT URGENT
IMPORTANT 1 2
NOT IMPORTANT 3 4

Every day, when you start work, I want you to spend the first few minutes making one of these, then put everything you have to do that day into one of the four boxes. Now lets see how smart you are, where should you spend most of your time?

I fell into the obvious trap of saying box 1, he just laughed and said.

Thats what all the busy fools do, successful people spend their life in box 2 and rarely need to visit box 1.”

I started to get it, but not completely and asked him about boxes 3 and 4. He smiled again folded the paper in half, tore off the bottom half and carefully placed it in the trash.

That’s where you get the time to do the important stuff

Close to thirty years later those words are still as fresh as the day I first heard them and just as relevant.

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There Are 4 Responses So Far. »

  1. Steve,
    I use exactly the same model and teach it to my managers when they complain about being too busy to get to the important stuff.

    I found the model in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits – I think he calls it ‘First Things First’.

    Laurie

  2. Steve

    Not heard this before, but I do like it and will try and apply it from today.

    Paul

  3. Paul,

    I promise you that this technique is extremely effective. After a very short time you find yourself thinking in the second quadrant all of the time and you start to become much more effective.

    You also get fewer surprises and actually get time to think.

    Steve

  4. Steve,

    It’s not been quite 30 years, but slightly more than 30 months and I’m still learning from you! Just reading this article makes me realise that I could do better, even with what I have to do today and tomorrow and next week. I will use this model myself and I will pass it on.

    Cheers
    Andy

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