Organize the importants over the urgent (Quadrant II)

 

With the clear concept of urgent and important, we are now in a position to choose the important. How to do this? 

Before delving into this, let me introduce you to the concept of compass and clock. We have both of these within us. Clock is time management or time-bound guidance, whereas compass is direction-bound. We all wore the shoes of clock and rode the bike of urgency, missing the flight of importance. Operating from the clock concept might make us efficient, good prioritizers, highly productive people, and great achievers, which is awesome, but it also puts us on the roller coaster of being mechanical without any emotions. As machines wear off with time, so we will also wear off with a clock mind. 

This brought Covey to introduce the concept of compass. When is a compass being used? When we are in a place of the unknown and we want direction-probably a jungle or an army expedition on an unknown land. In our lives also we are in unknown lands-we don't know where to head. This point demands a compass and not a clock. We make the wrong choice right at the beginning in order to be falsely sure that we are moving right. 

To understand this matter better, let me break down these concepts. 

When I say clock, what do I mean? We talk about efficiency (how fast and how much we can do), control (how much I know that my work will be done by this time, whatever it might cost, managing and not leading), management (how well I can take more out of the people I have been provided), competency (how competent we are, how many skills we can add to make myself more valuable), chronos (the sequential achievements I can align in my chart of achievements), and individual achievements (my achievement, my accomplishments, whatever happens). I am sure you all can relate now. What do we get by acquiring all these? This is what Covey quoted in his book. 

"My life is very hectic! I keep running all day—attending meetings here and there, maybe travelling also, so many phone calls scheduled and unscheduled, so much paperwork, and appointments. I keep pushing my limits, and by the time I reach home, I am totally exhausted. No energy to have food. My kids are all in bed by the time I come back home. The next day, I get up early, even before the kids, and the drill begins. Yes, this shows up very nicely-I am being promoted, I am being admired for my work, and I get well paid. All seems good, but my inside says, 'Is this what you really want and what counts?' I have to admit, 'I don't know'."

When I say compass, I mean quality of life. It is not just one thing; it is a bunch of things we need to take care of.

In order to achieve this, we have to fathom time management and enter into life leadership. When we don the life leadership cloak, we need to develop these three fundamental ideas, which help us to answer what our 'first things' are and how we put them first in our lives. 

a) The fulfillment of four human needs and capabilities - I call this the L factor and have a post on this later. It talks about our for human needs-'to live,' 'to love,' 'to learn,' and 'to leave a legacy.' 

b) The reality of my direction (my true north)— Like the compass, the red end of the needle will always point north only (true north is a reality); we have to develop such a compass within ourselves that always points to our principles or external realities. These principles or external realities are like the law of the farm. Just like on a farm, you can sow a seed in either a kharif season or a rabi season. After that, we have to water, nourish, and harvest at the stipulated time only. No shortcut can bring the crops on time, and we cannot sow just in any season and expect a crop. We have to follow this reality. In the same way, we have some realities of our lives that we need to find and align our lives in the same manner. 

c) The potentiality of these human capacities—when I read about these capabilities, that creates ultimate freedom of humankind. These are the capabilities that ultimately form our compass that empowers us to align with our true north. I will be writing this in my following post on X-Factor. 

A- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/acceptance-of-self.html?zx=af3c2e13bf8aa3d6

B- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/boundaries-to-set.html

C- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/compassion-on-yourself.html

D- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/discovering-oneself.html

E

F- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/forgiving-yourself.html

G- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/grains-of-gratitude.html

H- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/human-experiences-common-to-all.html

I

J

K- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/kindness-to-self.html

L- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/l-factor.html

M- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/mindfulness-for-self-compassion.html

N- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/no-that-needs-your-attention.html

O- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/organize-importants-over-urgent.html

P- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/prioritize-yourself.html

Q- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/qualm-effect.html 

R

S

T

U- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/urgency-addiction.html

V

W- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/wellness-most-awaited-self-care.html 

X- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/x-factor-reveal.html

Y- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/talking-to-yourself.html

Z- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/zaniness-of-you-to-embrace.html

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