Learn to Manage Your Time

Source: The Rainmaker Academy

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Angie Grissom.

Franklin Covey's time matrix tool is a matrix comprised of four quadrants. It is designed to reveal how you are spending your time and to show you how it may benefit you if you redistributed your time in other quadrants.

Quadrant 1 is both urgent and important. An example is a top client showing up at your office with a big problem. You better not put this one off. There is no escaping Quadrant 1 time. If you spend all of your time in Quadrant 1, chances are you are stressed out and in crisis mode much of the time.

Quadrant 2 is the quadrant that I adore. This is the important but not urgent quadrant. Spending your time working on preparing for client meetings, and writing plans and presentations is what this quadrant is made of. If you schedule adequate time in Quadrant 2, you will find yourself calmer, more collected and very well prepared for your responsibilities.

Quadrant 3 is the quadrant that is urgent but not important. Things that fall here are phone calls from potential vendors. They are urgent because they are on the phone right now, but they are not necessarily important to what you are doing. We must try to control the amount of time spent in this quadrant.

Quadrant 4 is the not urgent and not important category. Activities that fall here may be browsing the Internet or playing a game on the computer. The danger comes when you spend too much time here.

The key to effective time management is to control how much time you spend in each quadrant.

For the complete blog entry, read “Quadrant Two Time.”

From The Rainmaker Academy, http://www.therainmakeracademy.com, February 28, 2011.