In my Sustainable Life Design Coaching sessions, you are very likely to hear about this innovative and highly practical time management concept I call Quadrant 2.  This concept originates from Eisenhower’s urgent-important principle and has been popularized by Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Quadrant 2 concept puts your most important priorities into sharp focus. When you identify what is important in your life, work, money, and relationships, you are able to proactively articulate key goals and schedule your activities accordingly. When you stay in Quadrant 2, you are:

• An effective leader
• Contributing to your organization’s success
• A loving parent, spouse, child, and friend
• In control of your life
• Successful overall

Here is how it works:

Quadrant 1:  Highly important/ Highly urgent

You didn’t take care of the important issues ahead (Quadrant 2), hence things don’t go as planned (or rather, they were never planned in the first place) and you end up scrambling and improvising, under urgent circumstances.

• You didn’t take care of the small water leak in the bathroom and now you have a flood and must take care of it urgently.
• There is a trend shifting in your industry, and you didn’t plan proactively to design your product to meet the changing needs and now you are losing your clients over to your competition. Your crisis management goes to price deductions to stop the bleeding but to hurt your bottom line instead. You are now in a desperate situation (urgent/important).

Quadrant 3 –  Not important/ Highly urgent:

You seem to be responding to urgent meetings or report requests all the time – generally an occurrence by a lack of proactive planning by others. You are responding to phone calls/emails all day long but without any consideration for whether these tasks really need action right now.  Could they wait until next week instead or could someone else handle these on your behalf?

Quadrant 4 – Not important/ Not urgent:

You spend a lot of time here because these are often easy to do, little strategy involved and still feels like you’re getting ‘something’ done, except, what you’re likely doing is procrastinating your important tasks.

Quadrant 2:  Highly important/Not urgent

You understand your priorities and plan ahead of time. You spend time visioning for your future, planning for it and living your life with focus. You spend time on your client/employee relationships so that they are active participants of your future and help you avert future problems. You plan activities with your loved ones ahead, into your calendar so that unimportant tasks won’t hijack your time from your important relationships. You plan career development so that you ensure success. You have loving relationships.  Life-Work balance comes naturally to you. You never say you are too busy for important things. You are IN control – of your career, relationships, money, and in your life in general. You are happy, confident, and fulfilled.  A sustainable life designed!