Assignment Directions: All of our actions can fall into four quadrants, depending on their importance and urgency. You will be constructing your own time management chart. By completing this chart, you can identify the importance and urgency of the actions that you need to take to manage your time more effectively.
Quadrant I - Actions listed as "urgent and important" are for when we are in a state of emergency or panic. These are actions that can't be ignored. However, spending too much time in fire fighting mode will lead to stress and burnout. If you have numerous actions listed in this quadrant, you could become caught in a never-ending cycle of crisis management. The only way to reduce the time spent in this quadrant is to be proactive by spending more time on the important things before they become emergencies (Czartoryski, 2012).
Quadrant II - Actions listed as "not urgent and important" is where we should spend the majority of our time. These tasks center on planning, being proactive, improving skills, and building relationships.
Quadrant III - Actions listed as "not important but urgent" can be distracting and cause us to waste valuable time. These tasks include interruptions such as ringing phones, answering text messages, or responding to emails that could be handled later. Spending too much time on the unimportant urgent things leads to a very short-term focus with continual crisis management (Czartoryski, 2012).
Quadrant IV - Actions listed as "not urgent or not important" can be detrimental to achieving our goals because they are typically time wasters. Spending too much time on non-urgent and not important things can lead to dependence on others (Czartoryski, 2012). Yet, remember we can't eliminate all of these activities, or what fun would life be? We just need to make sure they don't impede our success by consuming our lives.
References:
Czartoryski, A. (2012). The four quadrants of time management. Make sure to include at least 4 items per quadrant to receive full credit.