stephen covey's book the 7 habits of highly effective people

Satisfaction is a function of expectation as well as realization. recognizes that ‘time management’ is really a misnomer–the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.

4th Generation: Shift in perspective from time and “things” to cultivating relationships and results.Ĭovey finishes with one of the most important lessons of all:.Certain things are more important than others, so we must compare the value of each activity and structure our time in a way that matches these priorities. 3rd Generation: Adds prioritization + goal setting.No longer simply dealing with the wave of demands, we now seek to take control. 2nd Generation: Future planning such as personal calendars.An “effort to give some semblance of recognition and inclusiveness to the many demands placed on our time and energy.” The final lesson is one of my favorite of all and it’s an incredibly smart insight into the way our mind works and how we can maximize our productivity.Ĭovey refers to it as the ‘four generations of time management’ and he describes them as so: I personally love this approach because it develops virtues in you which make you a stronger, wiser, and more effective human being as a whole, not one specialized in one or two subjects which then has problems in areas in which they don’t have sufficient skill or experience. It’s about looking forward into the future and imagining yourself accomplishing said goal and then working backward to imagine how, piece by piece, you might make that goal a reality in concrete, measurable terms.Ĭovey says we need to, “begin with the end in mind” and use our imagination to craft a vision that is not just compelling, but practical. More than just creating a plan for achieving X goal, this is about reverse engineering your success. So, before you can ever hope to make something a reality– or, at the very least, as you go– you must first create a clear and thorough plan for doing just that. Create it in your mind before attempting to make it a realityĮvery great achievement in recorded history took forethought and planning to achieve. The basic idea behind the four quadrants is this that there are two primary factors which are constantly fighting against one another when it comes to our actions: urgency and importance.īy organizing our tasks based on all four possible combinations of these two principles, you can identify where you should be placing most of your time (hint: it’s Quadrant 2) and which should be pushed back for those priority tasks.

Stephen covey's book the 7 habits of highly effective people