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The 8th habit of highly effective leaders
Balancing work life and home life
Balancing work life and home life
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Recommended: The 8th habit of highly effective leaders
Habit 3: PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST
Prioritize, and do the most important things first. Putting first things first is the second or physical creation. It is organizing and executing around mental creation (your purpose, vision, values, and most important priorities.) Habit 3 is about learning to prioritize and manage your time so that your first things come first, and not last. There is more to put first things first than just time management.
In General, we spend our time in four quadrants (as shown below). Each quadrant contains different kinds of activities and is represented by a type of person.
THE TIME QUADRANTS
IMPORTANT
URGENT
NOT URGENT Quadrant 1
THE PROCRASTINATOR
EXAM TOMORROW
FRIENDS
GET INJURED
LATE FOR WORK
CAR BREAKS DOWN
Quadrant 2
THE PRIORITIZER
…show more content…
There will always be Q1 things that we can’t control and that must get done, like helping a sick child or meeting an important deadline, but we also cause many Q1 headaches because we procrastinate. The effects of too much time in being the procrastinator are stress, anxiety, burnout and having mediocre performance.
Q2 is made of things that are important but not urgent. It is the quadrant of excellence-the place to be! Q2 activities are important, but not urgent and that’s why we have trouble doing them. The effects of being the prioritizer are control of your life, balance and high performance.
Q3 represent things that are urgent but not important. It is characterized by trying to please other people and responding to their every desire. This quadrant is deceptive because urgent things have the appearance of being important. In truth, they are often not. Q3 is loaded with activities that are important to other people but not important to you. Effects of spending too much time being in the Yes-Man have to be reputation for being a “pleaser”, lack of discipline and feeling like a doormat for others to wipe their feet
Habit 3 is Put First Things First. Personally, I struggled with putting first things first as I was a procrastinator but, I have finally conquered myself and I am no longer in Quadrant 1! You see, there are different time quadrants which tell you if you are a 1. Procrastinator, 2. Prioritizer, 3. Yes-Man and 4. Slacker. You need to always stay on top of things and stay in quadrant 2 but it’s not easy, so you must work very hard for it to become a natural thing for you. Another way to becoming a prioritizer is to realize what your big rocks are and what your small rocks are. In other words, take notice of what is important first and those will be your big rocks to accomplish first. Only then will you have space for all the small rocks. Lastly, don’t let fear control you, control your fear. It’s okay to make mistakes if you’re trying to do the right thing. On page 121 in the 7 Habits book, Sean Covey says “Winning means rising each time you fail.” This is telling you that although you failed, if you are willing to rise and try again and pick up your broken pieces, that is winning. This is a hard habit to conquer but once you do it, it will change your
The whole cosmos today is centered around the here and now. We thirst for everything to be done hastily so we can continue with our day. As a repercussion of that we tend to strategize our days in advance with activities to occupy
The Achievement Habit is a book all about taking control of your life. Bernard Roth is the author and he does a brilliant job of pointing out everyday issues about society. He points out in chapter two that Reasons Are Bullshit . Everyone uses reasons for things that we can control but we only use them when the things are not top priority. If everything we did has top priority then we would get it done and not need an excuse or reason for it. Roth says “ Many reasons are simply excuses to hide the fact that we are not willing to give something high enough priority in our lives.” ( p.41) People may argue that reasons are necessary , Roth argues that Reasons Are Bullshit. He thinks “ The problem with reasons is that they’re
Everyone develops habits in their life, but it depends on whether or not you have an obsession or develop an addiction for it. In Chapter 9 of “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, Angie Bachmann has a gambling addiction which led her to massive debts. She is a wife of Brian Thomas and have 3 daughters. Angie Bachmann should be held accountable for her gambling debts because her set of rules weren’t working, was tempted by Harrah’s perks, and her environment shaped her to become addicted.
Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, acknowledges how habits control our daily lives in every decision we make. For Instance, an ambitious woman named Lisa Allen, has not always had a fruitful life. Previously, she had abused her body with harmful toxins such as tobacco and alcohol since the beginning of her teenage years. Carrying out these habits everyday resulted her into being unmotivated and unconfident. In fact, she never kept a job longer than a year and began to fall into major debt. “She needed a goal in her life, she thought. Something to work toward” (xii-xiv). It begins with the “three-step loop” a cue that triggers our brain to do the habit. Next a routine, a set of actions that are either physical or mental. Finally a reward of satisfaction that determines whether or not this habit will be continuous (19). Not all habits can be good, but this is where the golden rule applies. Duhigg explains that in order for you to change your habit “ you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine”(62). “However, simply understanding how habits work- learning the structure of the habit loop makes them easier to control”( 20). Reading The Power of Habit, helped me understand the process by which I made a positive change to fight procrastination.
The article, “The Power of Habit” (chapter 9), by Charles Duhigg, is about Angie Bachmann who was addicted to gambling. It all started one day when she felt so lonely that she decided to go out and play in the nearest casino. Angie started by setting rules just so she would not become addicted. As days went by Angie slowly started to break her rules and gambled more than what she should of have. Angie lost a lot of money. Although, Harrah’s casino would send her free stuff and vacation trips to get Angie to play more. Angie realized that she had a problem with gambling and went away for a time, but she went back to Harrah’s casino when her parents inherit her money. Angie lost all the money that she inherited and started to get loans
You take the quickest shower possible and eat breakfast so fast you almost choke and then realize, I'm still going to be late for my 8 o'clock class. You race out of the house with your keys in your hand, jump into the car, and damn it won't start. Then, you think to yourself, could this day get any worse? If this sounds like your typical morning, then I have the car for you. What kind of car do you drive?
The seven habits Covey summaries in the text are Be Productive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win/Win, Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood, Synergize, and Sharpen the Saw. He describes how adopting these seven habits teach one to be their true selves, to be authentic, to live with self-respect, and to do things with honor. He emphasizes that it is necessary to identify the interdependence that individuals each required with the specific skills it takes to become highly effective. The authors’ intent is to empower persons to significantly enhance their routine competency through awareness by embedding these seven habits.
In the workplace, time management is an important factor in everyone’s day-to-day work. If a person’s time is well managed, it is possible to achieve a greater amount in a shorter space of time. How effectively people manage their time has a major influence on aspects of their working lives and their personal lives. Effective time management can have a hugely positive effect on a person, it can lead to a focused and disciplined mentality, giving a higher level of productivity, greater efficiency and an all round positive attitude in life. This benefits the individual, their team, the company they work for and also their friends and family. An example of this is an employee who prioritises their jobs at the start of the day; this gives them a structured day and ensures they have time to complete all of the important jobs. However, if time is poorly managed it can lead to inefficiencies, work overload and added pressure, this could eventually lead on to other issues such as stress.
The problem of time management can be said to be universal not only affecting students but also other people in careers. This problem is seen to transition from a person’s life from different cadres of his or her engagement specifically from home, school and at work. It is also a problem that is internal and not external.
Being proactive is the first step in the seven habit journey. I thought I was proactive because I always had to plan everything in my life. Family vacations, work schedules, continuing education all were events that I was proud to say I planned right down to the last detail. Reading the Covey material I realized that being proactive went much deeper than just planning life events. Being proactive involves choosing my attitude, focusing on my circle of influence and not my circle of concern, and turning setbacks into triumphs. Being proactive means to act based on principles not emotions. We all need a pause button that would allow us to stop during that time between...
In habit 3 Covey breaks down the schedule side of life, where does most of our time go, to the most important things or to the small issues. There are four boxes that we live in the first one is pressing problems, crises, and deadline-driven products. The second box is prevention, relationship building, planning, and recreation. The third box is interruptions, mail, phone calls, and meetings. The fourth and final box is all the trivial side of life, and can also be called the miscellaneous. When reading these sections a lot of people know where they should be(section 2) but so many times find themselves in all the other sections. Focusing on those other sections makes us go back to being reactive and not proactive. If you look at the pieces of section two you will see that it ties into developing the circle of influence, tying back to habit 1. Covey put it this way “even when the urgent is good, the good can keep you from your
In the book the Achievement Habit author Bernard Roth talks about one’s need for success. According to the author, there is nothing standing in your way of getting success except: “bullshit prettied up and called an excuse”. While many people who subscribe to Roth’s ideas that you just need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get to work, anyone who has struggled with depression can attested that what Roth is peddling itself is a lot easier said than done. What is depression, though? If left without help, what might the result be?
The limitation of this essay is that no survey has been conducted, and so further research could be done regarding significant issues in time management.
To simply everything- life is becoming complicated, and more demanding. We are over loaded with news, different information and a lot buying things. We are taking more commitments, tasks and obligations. However, less is truly more. I will schedule my time on only important