This whole habit of Putting First Things first is all about having the integrity of acting on your priorities which you have identified in Habit one and two. [This was mentioned in my earlier articles].
Now we need to have a framework to understand this , Typically all the things we do in our day to day can be classified in to this TIME MATRIX,
 The essential focus of the fourth generation of Time management can be captured in the time management matrix diagrammed below. Basically, we spend time in one of four ways. As you can see, the two factors that define an activity are urgent and important.
Urgent : means it requires immediate attention. It's "Now!" Urgent things act on us. A ringing phone is urgent. Most people can't stand the thought of just allowing the phone to ring.
you could spend hours preparing materials, you could get all dressed up and travel to a person's office to discuss a particular issue, but if the phone were to ring while you were there, it would generally take precedence over your personal visit.
If you were to phone someone, there aren't many people who would say, "I'll get to you in 15 minutes; just hold." But those same people would probably let you wait in an office for at least that long while they completed a telephone conversation with someone else.
Urgent matters are usually visible. They press on us; they insist on action. They're often popular with others. They're usually right in front of us. And often they are pleasant, easy, fun to do. But so often they are unimportant!
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 seize opportunity, to make things happen. If we don't practice Habit 2, if we don't have a clear idea of what is important , of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily to diverted into responding to the urgent.
Look for a moment at the four quadrants in the time management matrix. Quadrant I is both urgent and important. It deals with significant results that require immediate attention. We usually call the activities in Quadrant I "crises" or "problems". We all have some quadrant I activities in our lives. But Quadrant I consumes many people. They are crisis managers, problem-minded people, deadline-driven producers.
As long as you focus on Quadrant I, it keeps getting bigger and bigger until it dominates you. It's like the pounding surf. A huge problem comes and knocks you down and you're wiped out. You struggle back up only to face another one that knocks you down and slams you to the ground.
Some people are literally beaten up by problems all day every day. The only relief they have is in escaping to the not important, not urgent activities of Quadrant IV. So when you look at their total matrix , 90 percent of their time is in Quadrant I and most of the remaining 10 percent is in Quadrant IV, with only negligible attention paid to Quadrants II and III. That's how people who manage their lives by crisis live.
This needs to be understood in great detail and lets look at more of these quadrants in our next weeks edition of the journey towards effectiveness.
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