Midterms, final exams, papers, projects, clubs, volunteering, research, writing, family, friends, finances …Feeling Stressed? No doubt about it, college life can be very intense. Yet, success in college is not solely dependent on hard work, creativity, or intelligence; success is also dependent upon on how well you manage your time.
In his book First Things First, Dr. Steven Covey suggests that time management is actually personal management or managing ourselves rather than managing time. The essence of time management is to organize and execute around priorities.
All your tasks can be divided into for categories:
- Important and Urgent (crises, deadline-driven projects)
- Important, Not Urgent (preparation, prevention, planning, relationships)
- Urgent, Not Important (interruptions, many pressing matters)
- Not Urgent, Not Important (trivia, time wasters)
Make a four quadrant (2X2) matrix of the characteristics of all of your activities, classifying them as “urgent or not urgent”, “important or not important.” List the activities screaming for action as “Urgent.” List the activities contributing to your mission, values or high-priority goals as “Important.”
Quadrant I activities are urgent and important - often called problems or crises. Focusing on Quadrant I results in it getting bigger and bigger until it dominates your life. Urgency can become “addicting.” We can get a temporary high from solving urgent and important crises. However, effective people spend less time in Quadrant I, and more in Quadrant II.
Quadrant II activities are important, but not urgent. Working on this Quadrant is the heart of personal time management. These activities are in the areas of preparation, prevention, planning, relationship building, and values clarification.
Quadrant III activities are urgent and not important, and often misclassified as Quadrant I. These are such things as interruptions, certain phone calls, e-mail, and meetings. These activities may be meeting others’ priorities and needs, but not your own.
Quadrant IV is the escape Quadrant - activities that are not urgent and not important: busy work, “escape” activities, and excessive TV for example. Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because they aren’t important. They shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II.
Effective time management involves reducing time wasters, not responding to urgent and not important activities and focusing on important, but not urgent activities. This will help you “do the right things.”
“Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things,” says Covey . Our real purpose is “to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy.”
Your legacy starts today. Go out there and start building it!
Midterms, final exams, papers, projects, clubs, volunteering, research, writing, family, friends, finances …Feeling Stressed? No doubt about it, college life can be very intense. Yet, success in college is not solely dependent on hard work, creativity, or intelligence; success is also dependent upon on how well you manage your time.
In his book First Things First, Dr. Steven Covey suggests that time management is actually personal management or managing ourselves rather than managing time. The essence of time management is to organize and execute around priorities.
All your tasks can be divided into for categories:
Make a four quadrant (2X2) matrix of the characteristics of all of your activities, classifying them as “urgent or not urgent”, “important or not important.” List the activities screaming for action as “Urgent.” List the activities contributing to your mission, values or high-priority goals as “Important.”
Quadrant I activities are urgent and important - often called problems or crises. Focusing on Quadrant I results in it getting bigger and bigger until it dominates your life. Urgency can become “addicting.” We can get a temporary high from solving urgent and important crises. However, effective people spend less time in Quadrant I, and more in Quadrant II.
Quadrant II activities are important, but not urgent. Working on this Quadrant is the heart of personal time management. These activities are in the areas of preparation, prevention, planning, relationship building, and values clarification.
Quadrant III activities are urgent and not important, and often misclassified as Quadrant I. These are such things as interruptions, certain phone calls, e-mail, and meetings. These activities may be meeting others’ priorities and needs, but not your own.
Quadrant IV is the escape Quadrant - activities that are not urgent and not important: busy work, “escape” activities, and excessive TV for example. Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because they aren’t important. They shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II.
Effective time management involves reducing time wasters, not responding to urgent and not important activities and focusing on important, but not urgent activities. This will help you “do the right things.”
“Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things,” says Covey . Our real purpose is “to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy.”
Your legacy starts today. Go out there and start building it!