Many years back, I found myself in training which exposed me to the time quadrant. It was interesting because it was an assignment for us all in the training. Most persons in the test chose to be in the first quadrant, as it looked busier and more serious. I will not share the box I fell into. You may guess at the end of the write-up.
We make decisions daily. How we make and execute them affects us holistically. Let me describe the Time quadrant. As a quadrant, it has four boxes. At the top of each of the squared boxes are titled:
Box 1: Urgent and Important.
Box 2: Not Urgent but important.
Box 3: Urgent but not important.
Box 4: Not urgent and not important.
These depict our attitude toward work planning and the decisions we take. They are all outcomes of our decisions and habits
.
Box one, “Urgent and important”: depicts the effects of poor planning and discipline leading to unnecessary pressure to get beat deadlines. The person is perceived as being busy but complains a lot of no time, the result of procrastination till he is choked for time. He often understands important things but fails to plan ahead of time. At a glance, the first box looks like the most important of the boxes showing a busy person. Such ones are late performers and latecomers often, they have broken down cars for poor maintenance habits and other crises situations.
Box Two, “Not urgent but Important”: depicts a person with a leader’s mentality, a good planner, and acts well ahead of time, balancing all activities with good planning, so that he is always calm as he has things under control. He maintains good relationships, has time to relax, and has high-quality output. Some may misjudge such persons as persons without a plan because of their visible calmness when others are agitated.
Box Three, “Urgent but not important”: depicts a person who creates a semblance of activities, but has no clear targets and plans, responds to all interrupters, all visitors, and phone calls at all times, without clear goals for the day. He appears busy but a mere deception, doing the minimum but looking active, forming activities to fill space and probably to impress. This person has a poor sense of duty and prioritization. He cannot be a leader and would detract and de-energize a team.
Box Four, “Not Urgent and Not Important”: This person is a loafer, a slacker, and self-indulgent in most things, thus busy on unimportant things or time wasters like excessive computer games, time on the internet, and too much TV viewing. Productivity is near zero. This one cannot deliver. He cannot lead any team; he would rather be a great distraction.
Do you connect with any of these? Some of us really get but at what? And probably achieving less than our peers. This would depend on our planning habits and forethought mentality. This reinforces the 80/20 rule of time management, where approximately 20 percent of our efforts produce 80 percent of the results with good forethought and planning. You cede out the less productive tasks for higher productivity and delegate responsibly.
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