Day Thirty One of The Thirty Day Proactive Test

Let's Get This Shindig Started

Click to hear "The Great Milenko" (Full Album)

11:13 AM

I completed The 30 Day Proactive Test yesterday, but I am still working on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This is not the kind of book you just read straight through, put down and never pick up again. Though it is very secular, it is kind of a combination of a bible, a textbook and a workbook. There are a lot of common sense suggestions on how to live a good life and exercises at the end of every chapter designed to apply the stuff learned from the readings in your every day life.

You can read it straight through if you want just to get a feel for the book and see what it is all about, because Covey is a good writer. It is an enjoyable read. He has a pleasant writing style. However, to get the most out of the book, you really have to do the exercises and apply this stuff to your day to day life, and that takes a lot of time, discipline and hard work.

I definitely want to get the most put of this book, because my life is complete shit. I have some halfway decent tools, but absolutely no idea how to use them. Covey's book is an instructional manual designed to help you use already existing assets as powerful tools.

I already did a bunch of reading today in 7 Habits so now my goal for the day is to do some Habit 3 work.

• Work on exercises at end of Chapter 3
• Begin work on rudimentary scheduleing
• Begin work on rough draft of personal mission statement

3:44 PM

Habit 3 is "put first things first." This is all about self-management and time-management. To be a good scheduler, we have to know about time management. To know about time management it has to start with the basics, which brings us to the time-management matrix I wrote about  the other day.

Time-Management Matrix

                                                                                       Not Urgent

	Urgent
Important	Quadrant I Activities: Crises Pressing problems Deadline-driven projects	Quadrant II Activities: Prevention, production capability activities* Relationship building Recognizing new opportunities Planning, recreation
Not important	Quadrant III Activities: Interruptions, some calls Some mail, some reports Some meetings Pressing matters Popular activities	Quadrant IV Activities: Trivia Busy work Some mail Some phone calls Time wasters Pleasant activities

As you can see, the two factors that define an activity are urgent and important. Urgent means it requires immediate attention. Urgent things act on us.

Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results. If something is important, it contributes to your mission, your values, your high priority goals. We react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent, require more initiative, more proactivity. We must act to seize opportunity, to make things happen. If we do not practice Habit 2 (begin with the end in mind), if we do not have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent.

Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, thy are not important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II.

Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are not urgent but are important. It deals with things like building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, long range planning, exercising, preventive maintenance, preparation---all those things we know we need to do, but somehow seldom get around to doing, because they are not urgent.

People who live in Quadrant 1 are literally beaten up by problems all day every day. The more time you live in Quadrant II, the less time you have to spend in Quadrant 1. People who spend all their time in Quadrants III and IV are basically irresponsible people or "losers," as Donald Trump would call them.

I     Results: Stress Burn out Crisis Management Always putting out fires	II    Results: Vision, perspective Balance Discipline Control Few crises
III    Results Short-term focus Crisis management Reputation-chameleon character See goals and plans as worthless Feel victimized, out of control Shallow or broken relationships	IV    Results Total irresponsibility Fired from jobs Dependent on others or institutions for basics

Becoming a Quadrant 2 Self-Manager

Quadrant 2 organizing involves four key activities.

Identifying Roles.   The first task is to write down your key roles.

1. Individual

2. Blogger, owner and operator of The Rant
3. Owner and operator of small home-based business
4. Boss of two employees
5. Owner and operator of small home-based production/publishing company

Selecting Goals.   The next step is to think of two or three important results you feel you should accomplish in each role during the next seven days. These would be recorded as goals.

Individual - Personal Development

Rough draft mission statement Ask doctor how to get hands on my medical records

Blogger - Owner/operator of The Rant

Rough draft mission statement Publish seven new posts

Owner/operator of Small Home-Based Business

Rough draft mission statement Return home

Boss of Two Employees

Contact Sennie as soon as I have an idea when I come home Ditto with Debbie

Owner/operator of Small Home-Based Production/publishing Company

Rough draft mission statement Publish seven new posts

Scheduling.   Now you can look at the week ahead with your goals in mind and schedule time to achieve them.

Daily Adapting.   With Quadrant II weekly organizing, daily planning becomes more a function of daily adapting, of prioritizing activities and responding to unanticipated events, relationships and experiences in a meaningful way.