(bright intro music)
-: Welcome to Time Management,
Prioritization, and Productivity.
In these lessons, we'll focus on time management
and task prioritization
as processes that are essential
to our professional and personal lives,
and how these skills are related to productivity.
Let's begin with discussing Covey's Quadrants
to help you prioritize your tasks and increase productivity.
Stephen Covey is a famous self-development pioneer.
For years, he has hosted seminars and lectures
on the idea of self-improvement.
Covey is also the author
of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
In this best seller, he presents the Covey's Quadrant,
which is a prioritizing process
featuring four different areas.
There are two sides to the quadrant, urgent and important.
Urgent, in this context,
can be defined as a task that requires
your immediate attention, like an upcoming deadline at work.
Fulfilling these duties will require present work
rather than future work.
Important refers to long-term goals
that direct you to the future you want to pursue,
such as being promoted to an executive position.
To achieve your goals in the important quadrant,
you can cultivate certain skills.
Here is what Covey's four quadrants look like.
Important and urgent tasks, your first priority.
Important but not urgent tasks, your second priority.
Urgent but not important tasks, your third priority.
Not important and not urgent tasks, your last priority.
Quadrant one, important and urgent tasks.
These tasks are your main priorities because they may have
deadlines or pressing problems.
Putting off tasks in this quadrant
can cause major consequences.
It's best to do important and urgent activities
as soon as possible.
Quadrant two, important but not urgent tasks.
Your second priorities are important
but don't have major deadlines
like those in the first quadrant.
The tasks in this quadrant are important
because they focus on the most valuable things you want
in your personal and business life.
These are long-term goals
that require scheduling and planning.
Quadrant three, urgent but not important tasks.
This is your third priority.
This quadrant often doesn't include
any long-term aspirations.
Tasks in this area are usually reactions to daily events.
For example, emails and calls
that are not majorly important to you,
but could be priorities for other people.
Many of these tasks can be delegated.
Quadrant four, not important and not urgent tasks.
These are your last-priority tasks.
They are usually time-waster activities
without much importance to your life and goals.
Most of these tasks can be eliminated from your life.
But some, like recreation and relaxation,
can still be performed after you've completed
more high-priority tasks.
Focusing on tasks in quadrants three and four
may not lead you to high productivity.
Instead, try focusing on those in quadrant one.
Completing these tasks first
can improve your productivity,
so you can work on the tasks
in the other quadrants without stress.