So, I've been reading Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People this week. Actually, I've been listening to it on audiobook. It's read by the author in a nice, presentation-style flow and tone. As some of you may already know, I've been having a really hard time with some of my priority-management-- particularly in my writing. I figured this book may help.
I've just started reading the section on the importance/urgency priority matrix. If that's new for you, let me break it down: There's a box with 4 squares inside. The top two boxes (Quadrants I and II) represent things that are important (the most urgent in the left box and the not-urgent in the right). The bottom two boxes (Q III and IV) are for unimportant things (again, urgent in the left and not-urgent in the right). Most of the time, Covey says, our lives can become dominated by the left side of the matrix, by the things that are urgent, regardless of importance. Then, items that were important/not urgent suddenly become urgent and you never quite catch up. Covey's assertion, at least as far as I've read, is to spend more time in the top boxes by (at least initially) saying 'no' to things in the bottom boxes.
Writing is a Quadrant II task for me. It's important-- vitally important to me-- but it's not urgent. And I've been letting it slide, replaced by unimportant things. So, taking Covey's idea, I've started to consider devoting some time each day for Quadrant II items. I'd like it to be at least an hour, but with school starting up for me, I may have to juggle that--
Wait a second... school just needs to be put in it's place just like everything else. Doing Quadrant II items before they become urgent is important to me, and it'll make school better as well. Plus, anything that brings writing to the forefront is valuable to me.
So, that's my goal-- an hour of Q II tasks each day, of which writing will be one. What about you? How do you make sure to get your writing done?
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