I had heard few things regarding time management and I want to share them with you (readers).
Actually there are four main types of planning systems through which we can do things in time or achieve our goals:
(1)Preparing a list of activities with checkbox and just marking tick when completed. It is helpful for the activities of a day or two maximum of week.
(2)Maintaining a planner, organizer, calendar or appointment books in which we can list the activities through which we can achieve short term or long term goals.
(3)The third generation is of prioritization, of clarifying values, and of comparing the relative
worth of activities based on their relationship to those values. It focuses on setting goals -specific long-, intermediate-, and short-term targets toward which time and energy would be directed in harmony with values. It also includes the concept of daily planning, of making a specific plan to accomplish those goals and activities determined to be of greatest worth.
(4)Fourth generation is different. It is managing yourselves rather than time managing you.
It recognizes that "time management" is really a misnomer -- the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves. Satisfaction is a function of expectation as well as realization. And expectation (and satisfaction) lie in our Circle of Influence. Rather than focusing on things and time, fourth-generation expectations focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results -- in short, on maintaining the P/PC Balance (Production/Production capacity).
There are four quadrants in which we do work or activities which influence our produuctivity.
Quadrant I:The activities which are urgent and as well as important. One should not wait for the important activitites to become urgent. The person in this zone will fed up easily since he/she has to do the urgent things and cannot concentrate on the goal he wants to achieve.
Urgent matters are usually visible. They press on us; they insist on action. They're often popular
with others. They're usually right in front of us. And often they are pleasant, easy, fun to do. But so often they are unimportant! Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results. If something is important, it contributes to your mission, your values, your high priority goals.
We usually call the activities in Quadrant I "crises" or "problems." We all have some Quadrant I activities in our lives. But Quadrant I consumes many people. They are crisis managers, problem-minded people, the deadline-driven producers. As long as you focus on Quadrant I, it keeps getting bigger and bigger until it dominates you. It's like the pounding surf. A huge problem comes and knocks you down and you're wiped out. You struggle back up only to face another one that knocks you down and slams you to the ground.
Quadrant II:The activities which are not urgent but important. One should be in this zone. The people who wants manage themselves, achieve his/her goal and wants to be happy should be in this zone.
Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity. We must act to seize opportunity, to make things happen.
QuadrantIII:There are other people who spend a great deal of time in "urgent, but not important" Quadrant III, thinking they're in Quadrant I. They spend most of their time reacting to things that are urgent, assuming they are also important. But the reality is that the urgency of these matters is often based on the priorities and expectations of others.
QuadrantIV:As long as you focus on Quadrant I, it keeps getting bigger and bigger until it dominates you. It's
like the pounding surf. A huge problem comes and knocks you down and you're wiped out. You
struggle back up only to face another one that knocks you down and slams you to the ground.
Some people are literally beaten up by the problems all day every day. The only relief they have is in escaping to the not important, not urgent activities of Quadrant IV. So when you look at their total matrix, 90 percent of their time is in Quadrant I and most of the remaining 10 percent is in Quadrant IV with only negligible attention paid to Quadrants II and III. That's how people who manage their lives by crisis live.
People who spend time almost exclusively in Quadrants III and IV basically lead irresponsible lives. Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they aren't important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II.
Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are not urgent, but are important. It deals with things like building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, long-range planning, exercising, preventive maintenance, preparation -- all those things we know we need to do, but somehow seldom get around to doing, because they aren't urgent. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems. They think preventively. They have genuine Quadrant I crises and emergencies that require their immediate attention, but the number is comparatively small. They keep P and PC in balance by focusing on the important, but not the urgent, high-leverage capacity-building activities of Quadrant II.\
What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life? Quadrant II activities have that kind of impact. Our effectiveness takes the quantum leaps when we do them.
