Time management and stress that accompanies it can be one of the most challenging skill sets to learn. It seems we are always trying to handle too many demands with too little time. Everyone has the same number of hours in a day, and no amount of effort can change that.
For better time management and stress levels, we have included a tool from Stephen Covey. His Time Management Matrix. focuses on two key dimensions: (1) urgency and (2) importance of the activities we handle. In the graph below, the more urgent tasks are located on the left-hand side of the grid. The more important tasks are located to the top of the grid. The grid categorizes our activities into four quadrants. We spend time in one of these four ways.
Time management and stress
can become less of a challenge depending on how we spend those hours.
Quadrant 1 lists tasks that are urgent and important. Here is where we handle emergencies, crises and deadline driven projects. We need to spend time here, but many of important activities end up in this urgent quadrant because of procrastination, or because we did not spend enough time planning.
Quadrant 2 lists things that are important but NOT urgent. This is the Quality Quadrant. Here we handle quality time with our family, relationship building, self improvement and quality long range planning. These things are very important, but not pressing this minute.
Quadrant 3 includes things that are NOT important but are urgent. These would be interruptions, phone calls, and things that take your attention right now, but are just distractions. This is a Quadrant of Deception because there is the illusion of importance as we meet other people’s priorities, thinking we are in Quadrant 1.
Quadrant 4 lists things that are NOT important OR urgent. These are time wasters like watching TV, busy work, some phone calls, some things that you may enjoy doing but aren’t important. We really shouldn’t be in this Quadrant of Waste for any extended period of time. It is o.k. to spend time here for relaxation and decompressing you’re your busy schedule. It can be an escape but if over used it can be a nightmare for time management and stress escalates if this quadrant is just used to waste time.
To better comprehend how time management and stress issues become detrimental in your daily life, review your previous week’s schedule. If you were to place each of your last week’s activities in one of these quadrants, where would you say you spent the majority of your time?
Now take your list of activities for the coming day and place each activity in one of those four quadrant boxes. See where things land. By focusing our efforts DAILY on separating our tasks and keeping each in its quadrant, our time management and stress levels will improve. Having the discipline to handle tasks while they are important but not yet urgent will produce higher quality work, and your time management and stress levels will improve.
Why is it important to spend more time in Quadrant 2? To have a better handle on your time management and stress levels, it becomes necessary to move away from handling everything as a matter of urgency and begin to address activities when they are important but not a crisis. This means better planning, and a better focus on what is important in your life. Consider what is the one activity that you know if you did superbly well and consistently would have a significant positive results in your professional or personal life. Such answer might be improving communication with people, better organizing, better self-care, better goal setting. These are all activities that occur in Quadrant 2. But living in Quadrant 2 takes proactive effort rather than being reactive as you become navigating in Quadrants 1 or 3.
The goal is to keep your work in Quadrant 2 as much as possible, keeping up with things that are not urgent but are important. Set goals for 3, 6 and 12 months. Create specific actions necessary to achieve these goals, as well as assigning specific target dates for completion. Spending time in Quadrant 2 is a habit that needs to be formed so that you are not reacting to the daily happening of your life and losing focus on the bigger picture. If necessary, take time out just to focus on Quadrant 2 so that you can stay on track and remember your greater goals.
Consciously strive to maximize Quadrant 2 time. Using your daily planner, allocate time—each day, to carry out these tasks when you are at your best. Doing so can reduce the amount of time taken up with activities becoming crises because you did not attend to them when they were still located in Quadrant 2. Better manage your time in Quadrant 3 by limiting your distractions.
Moving to Quadrant 2. Here is an exercise to help you switch from allowing your time management to be dictated by urgency. . 1. Write down all of the Quadrants 1 and 3 activities you handle on a daily basis. 2. For each of these activities consider, “What can I do to prevent this activity from reoccurring or from it having such urgency?” . 3. Write corresponding answers that identify Quadrant 2 activities you should be doing and you can then schedule time and ways to implement. . 4. For each Quadrant 2 activity scheduled, treat it like an appointment.
Time management and stress do not have to be your enemy and do not have to have detrimental effects on your emotional and physical well-being. Changing from focusing on the urgent to focusing on the important takes time and practice.
