Follow up to Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 3 is based on the principle that effectiveness requires a balance among your important relationships, roles, and activities. Habit 3 is where the rubber meets the road.
Zack had a great question during this time. He asked where there was room for spontaneity. Habit 3 is not about making you a machine; it is about you determining your priorities and acting on them. This past weekend the weather here was awesome, and I chose to run some errands before doing my laundry. As I was running errands I thought who cares about laundry, I’m going to do something outside while it’s nice. So I stayed out and did laundry on Sunday. The laundry is still a priority, but I can rearrange that. Enjoying the weather connects to my mission statement on a few levels, and being outside helps me sharpen the saw. Besides, I’m living to live, not living to do laundry. Now if I just wait because I can and I’m not acting on priorities where does that get me? I’ll tell you where-in some nasty boxers and hating life, and probably not even enjoying the weather.
In this Habit we looked at the Time Management Matrix, which consisted of Quadrants 1-4. Let’s review each of those.
Quadrant 1: The Procrastinator. These things are urgent and important, but might’ve been accomplished earlier if we had aligned our integrity to our actions.
Quadrant 2: The Prioritizer. These things are not urgent and important. Sharpening the saw is a Q2 activity, along with continually preparing, building relationships, and re-creation.
Quadrant 3: The Yes Man. Not important yet urgent. These are other people’s priorities.
Quadrant 4: The Slacker. Not important, not urgent. This is continual procrastination, time-wasting activities. Too much sharpening the saw could fit in here; just watch American Gladiators.
Our goal should be to stay out of Quadrants 3 & 4! Q1 activities will always happen-last minute assignments for class or work, an emergency, etc. If we don’t do what is important to us while it isn’t urgent, those things quickly become Q1. It is not default, it is design-we are not only the architect of our lives, we are the builders.
Get a planning system to help with Habit 3. In our planning we should do three things:
1. Review your mission and your roles
2. Choose your big rocks
3. Schedule the week (with big rocks 1st!)
Let’s break this down-
Each week I should review mission and roles. So my mission: CLICK. Creativity, Love, Integrity, Communication, and Knowledge. I look at it and take a second to think about it. Then I look at each of my roles, connect to my mission and think about my week:
- Sharpen the Saw (Physical, Social/Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual)
- Family
- Friend
- Delta Tau Delta
- Community Member
When I schedule the week I ask myself what is the most important thing that I can do in this role this week? For me it is only one or two things in that role. It might seem simple, but everything else will fill your schedule. A big rock for me used to be calling my family back home. Now that is habitual, so it’s not a big rock. Since I moved from Georgia I’ve been bad at communicating to friends there, so a constant big rock is identifying a friend to call or message. As a Delt my role is my job, my brothers from Iota Theta, and an alumnus. Sometimes one big rock could impact different roles positively. I call my friend from KSU, he’s a Delt so I get caught up on the Chapter and I reconnect emotionally with others and myself. Just doing one important thing each week in our roles can yield tremendous results; we won’t spontaneously change or improve anything in our lives or the world, it is all the result of consistent prioritization and dedication.
Volcanoes don’t just erupt, things are happening below the earth well in advance.
Companies don’t just go bankrupt; accounts and spending were questionable beforehand.
Soldiers don’t just become heroes; they train harder and harder and harder.
You don’t just get excellent; you create and plan-you imagine and you act.
“The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.” - Sir John Harvey-Jones
Let’s bypass the surprise of complete failure and figure out what is meaningful to us, and strive to live that on a daily basis. Our mission of Committed to Lives of Excellence is accompanied by the statement that Accountability is Fundamental to all Commitments. Our commitment to excellence requires that we continually improve, that we learn from our failures and build on our successes. The first person to hold ourselves to these statements is in fact our self; that’s what integrity is all about. You define excellence; the organization doesn’t spell it out for you. You decide how to hold yourself accountable before anyone else does. By putting first things first we honor that commitment by living it daily.
Integrity is Essential,
Jeremy
