"It's important to get your priorities right." This phrase sounds like a leitmotif in most works on time management, penetrating deeper and deeper into the consciousness of everyone who strives to master this science. Any specialist in the field of time management knows that incorrectly defined priorities can negate not only all efforts to organize and plan the working day, but also significantly complicate life in general. But “to know” does not always mean “to be able to.” Simply being aware of this guiding principle of time management is sometimes not enough to learn how to prioritize correctly, and people begin to wonder: “How do we understand what is really important?”
Stephen Covey, a well-known expert on efficiency improvement and internal resource management, tried to help his readers understand this difficult topic with the help of the books First Things First and Focus: Achieving Your Highest Priorities. "). In these works, the author describes his method of organizing time to achieve maximum efficiency, and his system is also based on the concept of priorities, which not only participates in the process, but literally permeates every step on the path to improving self-organization. Stephen Covey in his books gives a detailed typology of existing priorities, offers the most successful systems of criteria, gives signs, features and examples of how to correctly determine them.
Of course, Stephen Covey's system is not limited to prioritization alone and includes a full range of techniques for effective planning. To more successfully apply this system in practice, it is worth turning to the use of additional tools, for example, electronic organizers. The most suitable choice is a scheduler LeaderTask. This program is designed taking into account the implementation of complex and multi-level time management systems and, due to its flexibility and versatility, will perfectly cope with the responsibilities of an assistant in the process of planning tasks according to the Stephen Covey method.
1. Formula of purpose
A key aspect of Stephen Covey's system is the formula of purpose. It is this that determines all subsequent features of the planning process, allows a person to highlight the main directions of his activities, the goals that he sets for himself and the functions that need to be performed for this. In fact, the mission formula vaguely resembles the mission of an enterprise, which sooner or later any businessman has to formulate. According to Stephen Covey's theory, the destiny formula is a description of the most important guidelines and goals on your life path. It can be presented in the form of a detailed list of principles or, conversely, in the form of a short and concise phrase. Alternatively, you can write it on a piece of paper or in a text file. But you should take into account that Stephen Covey recommends weekly review, analysis and evaluation of your destiny formula and therefore it is advisable to have it at hand.
It is for such records that the tool is designed "Notes", which the organizer offers you LeaderTask. By transferring your notes to a computer planner, you can be sure that your data will be safe and sound thanks to the backup function. And you can always quickly find the information you need. It is worth adding that the organizer provides extensive text formatting options that will allow you to highlight key points, highlight important notes, or illustrate any note.
Based on the formula of your destiny, you can identify the main roles that you would like to fulfill in your life. At the same time, each role should have its own goal. You can create a list of roles and their goals next to the mission formula using the function of inserting tables into notes:
2. Roles
Organizing time according to Stephen Covey’s method assumes that any task included in the plan relates to a specific role, reflecting one of the areas of your life.
In the organizer LeaderTask This can be easily accomplished by creating labels for each role in the navigator.
Special attention should be paid to the role of “sharpening the saw”. It is mandatory for everyone and is a process of increasing your capabilities and abilities in various areas of your life, arranged according to its dimensions. Stephen Covey explains this role this way: "We are often so busy 'sawing' (producing results) that we forget to 'sharpen the saw' (maintain and improve our ability to produce results in the future)."
3. Four human needs
Stephen Covey believes that human life occurs in four dimensions: physical, social, intellectual and spiritual. These dimensions are respectively revealed in the following needs: to live, to love, to learn and to leave a mark.
Every role you perform in life exists in all four dimensions, which are closely interconnected and generate a powerful synergistic effect.
During the planning process, you need to control, and most importantly, analyze the degree to which needs are met at each stage leading to the achievement of your goals. To bring these four life dimensions into the process of organizing time, you can use the section "Projects" in the organizer LeaderTask. After creating the necessary elements, you will have the opportunity to assign a specific type of need to each task, which in the future will allow you to quickly select from the general list of tasks only those that relate to the desired dimension or their combination.
4. Markers for tasks according to their priorities
The basis of Stephen Covey's system is the Time Management Matrix. It reflects the four main levels of task priority for a person in terms of urgency and importance.
According to the author of the matrix, for successful and effective activities, the majority of tasks (65-80%) should be concentrated in Quadrant II. Only doing important, but not urgent, things will allow you to achieve the desired results and enjoy the process of achieving your life goals. Tasks from the remaining quadrants, in turn, bring inconvenience and unpleasant sensations, introduce elements of chaos into your life plan and force you to put off really important things for later.
At first glance, it may seem that the plan should include only Quadrant II activities and not take into account other priorities. But this can only be real under ideal conditions, when the human factor is excluded from the equation of life. However, in reality, we interact with other people every day, struggle with our weaknesses and fulfill our responsibilities, whatever they may be. Therefore, when planning your working day, you need to take into account all four quadrants and honestly, first of all, in relation to yourself, set priorities. In the future, this will allow you to analyze your affairs and determine your ratio of quadrants.
To apply the Time Management Matrix in the organizer LeaderTask there is a reference book "Markers". Here you can create elements corresponding to each of the quadrants and choose their design. Assigning markers to tasks will give you the opportunity not only to visually determine the degree of importance and urgency of tasks, but also to sort the list of tasks by priority level.
In addition to the basic priority system based on the Time Management Matrix, Stephen Covey recommends detailing task importance levels using the ABC method, assigning each task a specific letter. So, the task marked with the letter A has the highest priority. The letter B means the average importance of the case. And C tasks are characterized by a low degree of importance or urgency. In a large flow of cases, you can further detail the priority of cases by entering numerical designations: A1, A2, ..., B1, B2, ..., C1, C2, ...
The use of the ABC method or its extended variation in practical activities is easily implemented using an organizer LeaderTask. To do this, you just need to add the required letter and number to the beginning of the task, and the program itself will sort the tasks by importance. Laid in LeaderTask the task sorting mechanism is ideal for implementing Stephen Covey's priority system, tasks can be sorted by markers (you need to display the marker column), and then by name (click on the name column while holding down the shift key), this organizer will arrange things in the order of markers (to do this, display column "Marker"), if necessary alphabetically, simply click on the header of the "Name" column.
5. Decision framework
In his works, Stephen Covey repeatedly emphasizes that planning must begin with the affairs of Quadrant II, i.e. from important, but not urgent matters that bring the juiciest fruits. To illustrate the process with this principle in mind, the author uses a favorite example of time management specialists, which tells about the difficult fate of water, sand, pebbles and large stones. In this case, large stones reflect key matters corresponding to Quadrant II, and small stones characterize other degrees of importance and urgency. The essence of the approach is that the first step is to create the framework of a working day or week using large and important task stones, and only then build the rest of the plan around them.
In this case, special attention should be paid to the process of setting deadlines, which is an inevitable companion of any planning system.
In the organizer LeaderTask Determining the deadlines for completing tasks is carried out using several methods.
So, you can simply drag a task into the diary area for the desired period and it will automatically be assigned the appropriate date and time. The method of moving tasks in a diary is suitable for operational planning of the coming days, as well as when adding pre-created tasks to the plan (for example, from the “maybe” list).
Or you can set the task execution date and time using the dialog box "Term". This method is more convenient for precise planning, setting long deadlines or frequency of task repetitions.
In addition, when planning the schedule of a specific day, you can filter the data by date using the toolbar "Filter" or Mini-calendar. After this, you just need to create a task by typing its name in the task tree and it will automatically be assigned the date by which the filtering was performed. This option is preferable for long-term planning.
Stephen Covey offers two zones for writing things down in his paper planner. The first zone is intended for tasks that have specific deadlines, and the second zone is for a list of priorities for the current day, i.e. for tasks that must be done today, when there is time for them.
Organizer LeaderTask also provides this opportunity to its users, which once again confirms the program’s compliance with Stephen Covey’s methodology. A list of current tasks that have not yet been assigned a specific time is located at the top of the calendar. At the same time, in this electronic planner you can create long-term tasks that will take more than one day to complete. These tasks are also located above the timeline and have arrow symbols to indicate that the task's due date extends beyond the current day.
As mentioned above, business planning must be implemented primarily based on tasks from Quadrant II.
Using the reference book in your work "Markers"(point 4) You will be able to quickly visually identify matters related to this quadrant, which will help you in the planning process to exactly comply with one of the main principles of Stephen Covey’s methodology.
6. Weekly update
While concentrating on business and worries, you should never forget about rest, as it is a full-fledged component of any plan. Therefore, Stephen Covey recommends paying special attention to weekends as a logical continuation of the work week. At the same time, being in close connection with weekdays, weekends must necessarily be different; only under this condition will the much-needed renewal take place. Of course, this does not mean that you should devote your weekends to Quadrant IV activities. It is enough to simply switch your activities to a different mode and tackle tasks from the same Quadrant II, but more suitable for a weekend atmosphere.
Electronic planner LeaderTask also tries to take care of your update. Therefore, in the program, weekends and non-working hours of the day are highlighted in a different shade, so that you can immediately determine that this zone belongs to the recreation sector and you need a different approach and things of a different nature.
Considering that the work schedule can be quite an individual organizer LeaderTask invites its users, in case of non-standard situations, to independently determine the duration of working hours and days of the week related to weekends.
7. Week scale
Stephen Covey singles out a week as the most suitable, even ideal, period of time. Suitable for everything. According to the author, it is convenient to plan a week, weekly results of activity are easy to analyze, regular weekly tasks give good results, but do not become a routine duty that burdens a person.
Thus, according to Stephen Covey’s method, a week is a key planning period, its basis. Using a computer planner LeaderTask, You can easily carry out weekly planning by switching to the appropriate calendar display mode.
As a result, a 7-day area will appear on the screen, displaying the days of the week from Monday to Sunday.
To make planning more comfortable in the planner LeaderTask It is possible to expand the diary area to the entire workspace using buttons located on the border between the task tree and the calendar. You can also hide the navigator from the View menu.
Working according to Stephen Covey's system, you will often have to look at the list of tasks planned for the current or next week. And when the to-do list is large, there is a desire to get only a list of to-dos related to a specific week, excluding everything that is irrelevant at the moment. This is what the organizer is for LeaderTask It was possible to filter tasks by certain periods of time. To do this, you need to select the days you need in the calendar.
Filtering by pre-created parameters is carried out using the toolbar "Filter".
8. Reserve time zones
Telling his readers about the process of distributing tasks along a timeline, Stephen Covey notes that it is not advisable to create a clear second-by-second plan for the entire day. The author recommends leaving free time and focusing on the concept of creating a flexible plan. This will allow you to react faster and much more calmly to suddenly emerging crisis or urgent tasks, because such situations in most cases will not significantly disrupt your plans and will probably fit into the “air” you have previously reserved in your schedule. If no critical events occur, then you can always occupy the remaining time with useful activities from Quadrant II.
Stephen Covey also introduces the concept of time zones for important matters, which reserve time in the plan for one or another area of your life without detailing the tasks being performed. Most often, these are repetitive tasks for which free time has been prepared in advance. For example, playing sports three times a week. So, this could be going to the pool, or doing exercises in the gym, or maybe playing football with your child in the yard. In any case, this will be physical exercise, and time for it should be reserved in advance.
To create in the organizer LeaderTask regular task you need to use the already familiar dialog box "Term". Here, using flexible repetition settings, you can set the required frequency of the task.
It must be emphasized that when working according to Stephen Covey’s system, you will have to refer to the task frequency settings more than once. The author recommends weekly analysis, evaluation and revision of your activities and the main elements of planning, such as the mission statement, roles and goals. In addition, you should make it a habit to make a weekly plan for the next week and adjust it daily according to current circumstances. For these activities, it is better to determine the time in advance and reserve it using a periodic task. When exactly to conduct weekly planning, on Friday at the end of the working day or on Sunday before the upcoming work week, Stephen Covey suggests you choose yourself, but the fact of the necessity and, most importantly, the effectiveness of this planning leaves no doubt.
It is worth noting that most of the tasks you perform in the role of “sharpening the saw” also belong to the type of periodic tasks. These are educational tasks, updating procedures, physical exercises, in general, everything that allows you to maintain and increase your internal resources to achieve new heights.
9. Conventional signs
In the audio version of the seminar “Focus. Achieving Priority Goals,” the listener is privy to the intricacies of working with the current plan using special symbols, a list of which is given in the FranklinCovey paper organizer. So, in order to indicate that the matter is in progress and quickly find the last working project after a forced switching of focus, it is necessary to put a dot next to the task. A tick marks the completed task. An arrow sign means that the task is postponed, and a cross sign means it is cancelled.
List of standard preset statuses in the electronic organizer LeaderTask fully corresponds to this list of signs.
In addition to the above statuses, Stephen Covey's technique involves the use of a certain sign (circle) to indicate delegated tasks that have been assigned to another person, but have not yet been completed and are awaiting feedback. In the organizer LeaderTask You can see the statuses of both your own tasks and those assigned.
Another auxiliary sign can be a label for tasks for the list "May be". The tasks included in this list are not even goals, not tasks, but just ideas. They may never be realized, but they may become a key element of your life, so it cannot be attributed to the to-do list, but you also don’t want to lose it in your memory. Stephen Covey recommends taking tasks off the list right away "May be" to a specific role. To highlight such an idea from the list of ordinary things to do, you need to assign a label to it "May be". Tags are specified in the corresponding directory and can be attached to tasks.
10. Four Dimensions of Role
As written above, each role is realized in all four needs: to live, to love, to learn and to leave a mark. Moreover, the listed dimensions are closely related to each other and may intersect or overlap. Reflection of this relationship in the organizer LeaderTask is implemented due to the possibility of multiple assignment of labels and projects, as well as due to the separation of these concepts into different sections. Thus, you can assign several roles and projects to one task at the same time. In the future, this function will allow you to more accurately and correctly build the necessary task lists using the filtering tool. Thus, one thing can relate to the role of sharpening the saw, the student and the teacher, simultaneously reflected in both the spiritual and intellectual dimensions.
11. Filtration
In his works, Stephen Covey pays considerable attention to the importance of balance between roles and between dimensions of life. Only if you achieve balance in all important areas of your activity will you be able to achieve success. All aspects, phenomena, aspirations and goals are closely interconnected. So, if the role of “Leader” is implemented, and the role of “Father” is left unattended, you will not receive a positive response from your own “I” and will not be able to say with a light heart that your life is ideal. Stephen Covey emphasizes the conjunction "and" between roles. This also applies to the balance of needs.
The corresponding logic is embedded in the filtering algorithm that the organizer is equipped with LeaderTask. In addition, flexible tools allow you to create complex, multi-criteria queries to obtain detailed task lists.
So, using the Filter toolbar, you can create a list of to-dos that relates only to the list "May be" for a specific role, or consider important tasks related only to job roles and their physical dimension.
12. Four talents
Stephen Covey writes that in response to four human needs there are four faculties: self-awareness, conscience, creative imagination and independent will. Working with these gifts largely depends on you and your inner attitude. But here too is an electronic organizer LeaderTask can become useful and help in implementing ways of their development.
Thus, Stephen Covey calls keeping a personal diary, which you can organize as a note in a planner, one of the ways to interact with self-awareness LeaderTask. Ability to automatically insert the date using a keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + D will greatly facilitate the process of filling out your diary.
The development of conscience is based on reading relevant literature. This does not include specialized publications in your profession. These should be “wise” books that can make you think about important philosophical phenomena in your life. However, you also need to read books for education, and you also need to structure your existing library. For these purposes in the organizer LeaderTask convenient to use section "Projects". You also need to create a project here "Information", which will contain all the information needed to perform each role. With the ability to assign projects and multiple tags, you can find the information you need for any role in a few clicks.
13. Key Notes
To record useful information about tasks, Stephen Covey recommends a detailed and fairly complex note-taking system that allows you to relatively quickly find the information you need in a paper organizer.
With the development of computer technology, the need to manually turn pages is increasingly becoming a rarity, functions and search capabilities are becoming wider and more diverse.
Stephen Covey is an excellent time organizer. His technique has allowed many people to improve and even radically change their lives. Using this guru’s system for managing internal resources and implementing it using an organizer LeaderTask You, too, will be able to qualitatively improve the level of your self-organization and achieve high efficiency and harmony in your life.Three steps to take BEFORE any planning
Don't be lazy to do these THREE STEPS, and then your plans will be meaningful, you will not stop halfway, and external events and circumstances will not be able to stop and confuse you.
These three steps do not have to be completed in one go, but can be done in several sittings.
Step #1. Define your values
Any planning begins with defining values and mission - or answering the questions: why am I doing this, what would I like to receive and what would I like to be.
When you understand what value is important to you, write it down, and on the contrary, write down what this value means to you in action.
Examples of values and explanatory statements:
Professionalism
Explanatory statements:
- I am constantly developing in an area that interests me;
- I am open to new ideas and advice from more experienced colleagues;
Teamwork:
- I know how to work in a team and act for the common good, shutting up my pride and sense of self-importance;
- I can put myself in the position of another team member and understand his motives, what motivates him and what is important to him;
Mutual respect for your spouse:
- I respect and appreciate my wife
- I know how to get into her position when she is nervous and worried and try to calm her down
- even when I get nervous and speak rashly, I fully realize how much I respect my spouse as a person and do not allow myself hurtful words and actions
When it’s difficult for you and you act under the influence of emotions and circumstances, open your values and reread them out loud, this will allow you to make thoughtful decisions that you won’t have to regret later (after all, regardless of the outcome, these decisions will be in accordance with your values)
Task No. 1:
Write down your values on paper, preferably on the last page of a notebook that you always carry with you (or in notes on your phone).
Step #2. Describe your roles
Roles reflect you as a person, your place in your family, society and the world at large.
When you write roles, you understand what you would like to be and how to behave. And your behavior will then belong to you
It is quite possible that now there are some roles that you do not want to fulfill and they have been imposed on you.
Examples of combining roles:
Vasily, founder of an IT company:
- leader in a team
a) Key people associated with the role: work colleagues
- entrepreneur and innovator
a) Key people associated with the role: business partners, investors
b) Explanatory statements: I try to unite the team with a common idea, inspire to achieve a common goal
- husband
a) Main people associated with the role: wife
b) Explanatory statements: I am a loving and caring husband for my wife, I am faithful to her and respect her and support her in difficult times
- son
a) Main people associated with the role: mother and father
b) Explanatory statements: I love and respect my parents, I take care of them and help them with my attention and money
Anna, head of HR service:
- head of HR service
a) Key people associated with the role: manager, employees, employee candidates
b) Explanatory statements: I am attentive to my employees, I know how to listen to them and understand their point of view
- mother:
a) Main people associated with the role: son
b) Explanatory statements: I am a loving mother who will always find time to raise my son and give him love and affection
- wife
a) Main people associated with the role: husband
b) Explanatory statements: I am a loving and faithful wife who knows how to listen to her husband and inspires him to achieve
Task No. 2:
Write down the roles that are important to you and write their ideal performance. For example: instead of Vasya - a husband, it is better: Vasya is a husband who knows how to listen, understand his wife, and finds time for his family (at least 1 hour of warm communication), even if he is stuck at work.
Step #3. Write your mission statement
A personal mission statement should reflect everything you want to do in your life, what you want to do, and what kind of person you want to be.
It requires deepening into oneself, careful analysis, thoughtful expressions and many revisions in search of the final version. It may take weeks, even months, before you are completely satisfied with what you have done and feel that you have achieved a comprehensive and concise statement of your deepest values and aspirations. Even then, you will return to what you wrote regularly, making some adjustments as your views and circumstances change over the years. But at its core, your Personal Mission becomes your constitution, a clear expression of your vision and your values. It becomes the yardstick by which you measure everything in your life.
Writing and revising a Personal Mission changes you because it forces you to think deeply about your priorities and align your behavior with your beliefs. When you do this other people begin to feel that you are not controlled by the environment or what happens to you in life.
You have a sense of Personal Mission for what you are trying to do, and this brings you joy.
The answers to these questions will help you create your Personal Mission:
1. What do you want to achieve in professional life
2. What do you want to achieve in personal life What will have the greatest positive impact on your entire life?
3.What kind of person do I want to be(e.g. compassionate, hardworking, humorous, responsible, etc.)
4. Everything I want what to do for life and what mark to leave on earth(for example, visit 30 countries, defend your doctorate, earn and save $1 million)
5. Everything I want have(for example, a new house, 10 minutes from the sea, a 12-foot yacht, a retirement account with savings of $1 million and passive income of $10 thousand per month)
6. So that you wanted to hear about yourself(imagine that you are celebrating your 80th birthday, colleagues, friends, relatives have gathered around you). How should they remember you? What would you like them to say?
- members of your family
- Friends
- neighbours
- Colleagues
7. At what points in my life have I experienced the most happiness and satisfaction?
8. Which of them professional activities bring me the greatest pleasure and satisfaction?
9. What is the greatest value to me in my personal life?
10. What talents and abilities do I have or want to have?
Example of a personal mission
I love my family, I care about my wife and children, as well as my parents. I am a hard worker and work hard for my well-being. I became a marketing and sales professional. Exploring new trends and ideas brings me the most satisfaction. I act in accordance with my values, and I don’t worry if something doesn’t work out now, I know that it will definitely work out in the future. I go through life with a smile and am grateful for every day I live. I will leave behind healthy children and grandchildren, as well as marketing and sales ideas that will be used by thousands of people.
Task No. 3:
Stay alone with yourself in a quiet place and write your personal mission statement. Do this first in a draft, and then copy it into a diary or phone that you always have at hand.
General planning scheme
Once you have identified and described your values, you can begin to define your goals.
And here are important thoughts to remember:
A) goals must correspond your values which you detail
described;
b) goals should be balanced with your roles - no need
get carried away by a particular role (for example, the role of the Head of a company), and when
while paying insufficient attention to another role (for example, the role of the Husband);
V) distribute goals in order of importance or priority;
G) the goal must be specific and with a deadline ( using SMART technology);
d) big goals need to be broken down into "nodal points (CP)"- so I took them for myself
called. It is the key points that are very strong motivators for you.
links to achieve a global goal. Moving gradually from one
node to another, you gain motivation and confidence in the final
result. And enthusiasm and encouragement are the most important factors for success.
I love it break the goal into stages (nodal points) and describe them specifically and measurably, and also set deadlines or dates by which these goals and key points must be completed.
To decompose goals into stages it is convenient to use Excel spreadsheet, as well as a Mind map. In the table, describe in detail the specific steps to achieve the goal and deadlines.
Describe your goals in reverse...
Try to describe achieving your goal not from the beginning, but from the end. Think about what previous simple step preceded achieving the goal? And what was in front of him? And in front of him, etc.
An example of decomposing a goal into subgoals or stages
In the example, the main goal is to write a review article with the most famous works on personal effectiveness.
Task No. 4:
Write it down 3 most important goals for you in various areas of life. Print them out or copy them into your planner. Chip: intermediate stages are convenient to record pencil, so that it is convenient to swap them.
All the things we do can be classified according to certain criteria. Stephen Covey offers a very convenient matrix display style
Got things to do urgent and important(for example, a phone ringing, or preparing for an exam the day before) - we classify such matters as the quadrant "I. Necessity", you can’t get away from them, you need to do them, otherwise it will be difficult. But if you do only them, then a crisis, depression, workaholic syndrome sets in.
There are things to do urgent but unimportant(for example, a colleague asks you to talk to a client instead, or you are invited to a meeting that will take place in an hour, but there will be little benefit for you there) - let’s call the quadrant with these things "III. Disappointment." You need to learn to refuse such things with a smile and without feeling guilty. At first it will be difficult, and perhaps many will be offended by you, but if you don’t do this, then your environment will think that you are obliged to do this and will begin to use you. And then try to prove that you shouldn’t do it, but did it once just out of pity...
Got things to do unimportant and not urgent, thousands of people come in the evening after work, lie down on the sofa, turn on the TV and... waste time on the unimportant and non-urgent, let’s call the quadrant with these things "IV. Excesses". By regularly doing things from this group, you become lazier, stupider and gradually lose your thirst for life and motivation to achieve results and become better.
And finally things important and non-urgent, we'll take them to quadrant "II. Efficiency"- this is our most productive pastime! When doing these things, we do not run like a squirrel in a wheel (as is the case with the “I. Necessity” quadrant), we work slowly, we have the opportunity to concentrate and calmly do what was originally planned and will lead us to the goal.
Features of performing these tasks:
a) you must be highly motivated by doing things from this group, because the results will not appear immediately;
b) sometimes urgent unimportant things (quadrant III. Disappointment) are easier to complete than non-urgent but important things, and then we make things easier for ourselves and get things done first from quadrant III., instead of quadrant II. This problem is solved by an effort of will, when sometimes we do unpleasant or difficult but important things first.
Live in squares 1 and 2, distributing tasks among yourself, and then your life will be balanced and productive.
Start the day with something important and difficult….
By the way, very useful practical advice: when you come to work in the morning, instead of going on social media. network or check your email for urgent (but not always important) issues, start your working day with an important and complex task, work on it for a couple of hours, then take a break in the form of checking emails and talking on the phone.
Task No. 5:
Take 3-4 things you did in the last 2 hours and classify them according to the Covey matrix
How to make a plan for the week
Having a weekly plan helps you stay on track and stay on track with your long-term plans.
When planning your week, keep three things in mind:
1) do it before the start of the work week;
2) do it in quiet place in which no one will distract you, allocating 30-60 minutes for this;
3) plan first relaxation and time with family, then everything else (otherwise there won’t be enough time for it)
Include only important things in your weekly plan, or as Stephen Covey calls them - "large stones" showing the example of a bucket that effectively needs to be filled with stones: first we put it there large stones(we plan first important matters), then add pebbles (small everyday tasks) and only then sand (random and fleeting tasks).
Most large stones fall into square 2 (Important but not urgent)
Example of a weekly plan
For convenience, print out the plan on thick paper and bookmark it in your diary, and also schedule time on the right days for the activities that you wrote in the plan
General
Read 4 books by Stephen Covey and work through the suggested tasks.
I want to familiarize myself with and implement into my life the principles of efficiency described in the books of Stephen Covey in order to increase personal effectiveness, learn to achieve significant goals and be always proactive.
I first learned about Stephen Covey in a bookstore, quite a long time ago. I saw his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” looked through it, but didn’t buy it. And only now I am reading this book. Since then, the method of reading has changed; if previously books were simply devoured, now I simultaneously make notes using a mind map and work through the proposed tasks. Therefore, the goal is to work out and implement the proposed methods.
List of books for work:
- "7 Habits of Highly Effective People"
- "Focus. Achieving priority goals"
- "Focus on the main things"
- "Habit 8. From effectiveness to greatness"
- "Diary. Stephen Covey Method"
An effective person thinks not of problems, but of possibilities.
Effective people feed opportunity and starve them.
problems.
Completion Criteria
I worked through Stephen Covey’s books, learned efficiency skills that I successfully apply, learned to always be proactive, and chose the techniques and tricks that suited me for my personal efficiency system.
An effective person thinks not of problems, but of possibilities. Effective people feed opportunities and starve problems.Stephen R. Covey
What is this
This is an applied use of the techniques described in the international super bestseller. “Diary. The Stephen Covey Method is your way to apply the seven skills every day.A daily planner will help you focus on what's important and achieve success in the areas that matter most to you. It's a tool that can help you use your time more wisely so you can focus on what's most valuable.