Time Management and Setting Priorities

We all struggle with setting our priorities straight and dealing with time management. When planning your next steps for the day or where you want to go strategically over the next year or few years, understanding your priorities is key.

Having worked with many non-profit and small businesses on creating strong strategic plans I discovered this handy tool. 

Give it a shot and tell me what you think!

 

Draw a table with four quadrants, and sort each of your tasks into one. The four quadrants are:

1. Necessity (urgent and important): Emergencies, deadlines, well-prepared meetings. These need to be done first.
2. Quality (important): Planning, implementation, and your own development. Maximize the time spent in this area, because it generates value in the long run.
3. Deception (urgent): emails, paperwork, badly prepared meetings. Try to get rid of as much as possible.
4. Waste (not urgent and not important): Browsing. Reading random posts on Facebook. Junk mails. Waste is toxic. Don't touch it! If you need a break, find yourself a distraction that has nothing to do with computers.

Assigning tasks to the four quadrants is a good way to quickly make a plan for the day - especially the first day after vacations.