Last week I talked a little about Quadrant IV non-urgent,
and not important. Today I want to move
to Quadrant III urgent, but not important.
These are things like phone calls, e-mail, mail, interruptions, and
other important activities that steal your productivity.
I took a training class on time management. During the course of the class the question
was raised how many would like to read more books. Most everyone wants to read more.
“Then why don’t you read more?”
Someone commented, “Because books don’t ring.”
I have not talked about quadrant II yet, I am saving that
for last, but reading a book is not urgent, but it is important, especially if
it relates to something you want to do. A ringing phone is urgent, but it may
or may not be important. A ringing phone
is an interruption which can throw you off of what you are trying to
accomplish. I heard somewhere, and for
the life of me I don’t remember where I heard this, perhaps in the same time
management training I took, if you want to feel powerful, do not answer the
phone.
It is amazing how many people can’t not answer a phone. It drives them crazy to let a phone
ring. Now today with cell phones and
personal directories and caller ID it does make not answering easy, but before
the caller ID if you wanted to know who was on the other end of the phone, you
had to pick it up and say, “Hello.”
Another activity that is urgent, because you have to do it
now are phone conversations. However Texting has become the new way to
talk. Yes you can text later, but I’ve
noticed the text has to be answered right now.
I have a twitter account. Right
now I don’t spend a lot of time with twitter, but I know some folks that get
started on twitter and suddenly a lot of time has been spent tweeting and
reading tweets. Facebook is another
activity that may not be important, but it does seem to be urgent, we all want
to know what is the latest in our social network.
I’m not saying these activities are bad, but if you are
looking where you are spending your time, what activities are stopping you from
being productive keeping you from reaching your goals, you might want to look
at the activities you do and how long you do them in quadrant III.
Next week I’m going to take a good look at Quadrant I. Or what I like to call the Stress Zone.
What activities do you find yourself doing that seem urgent
but really are not all that important?
