[toc title="Table of Contents" hint="Click to expand/collapse" class="toc-right" style="width: 50%"] Which items on a todo list are important?
Which are unimportant?
Which should be done first, and which can be postponed for later (or never perhaps).
The problem with listing todo items in simple order of priority, let’s say 1, 2, 3 and 4 where “1″ is highest priority is that such a listing doesn’t really reflect the importance of an item, only it’s urgency. For example, taking out the trash isn’t really all that important. It could wait… for the next pickup. It’s not like they don’t pick up once a week. And when you’re in the middle of a great project, taking out the trash is just a distraction. Some of you readers probably have trashed piled up, don’t you… you know what I’m talking about.
Listing by priority would be fine within each of Covey’s quadrants. But when the priority listing is spread over multiple quadrants, the sense of importance for any particular task is lost.
Let’s take a look at Steven Covey’s Time Management grid:
| URGENCY | ||
| IMPORTANCE | Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important, Fire Fighting |
Quadrant 2: Important but not Urgent Production |
| Quadrant 3: Urgent but not Important, Distraction |
Quadrant 4: Not urgent, not important, Time wasting |
|
Covey’s Quadrant
Taking out the trash goes into Q3 “Distraction” quad, right along with getting groceries, vacuuming the family room, doing the laundry, paying the bills, etc. For me, Q3 is Procrastination Station. I might have all the bills “paid.” That is, all the checks in stamped envelopes… sitting on the desk for a week until I get around to it.
Which reminds me, I need to run a quick trip to the post box. Back in a bit…
…Nice. Found a nickel on the sidewalk. It’s my lucky day. Back to work.
How to use Covey’s Quads
Covey’s quadrants, AKA Covey’s time management grid, works best with well-defined tasks, where “task” is defined as an activity that can be succinctly described in a single sentence to capture the essence of the activity. For example, “Cook Christmas turkey” is a task. Tasks may have subtasks (“Fix stuffing for turkey”), and may be subtasks of some other task (“Cook Christmas dinner”). In any case, the directions for accomplishing a task (let’s call them “directives”) don’t go into this grid, and are handled in detail elsewhere, ideally in checklists (open to suggestions for checklist web applications).
Blanchard’s Quadrant
Blanchard’s quadrants are a somewhat different way of examining the “getting things done” process, as explained by Mark Forster in a guest article on Andrea Novakowski’s blog. The quadrant itself it simple:
| Want to do/Don’t want to do | ||
| Have to do/ Don’t have to do |
Quadrant 1: Have to do, want to do |
Quadrant 2: Have to do, don’t want to do |
| Quadrant 3: Don’t have to do, want to do |
Quadrant 4: Don’t have to do, don’t want to do |
|
The key to using Blanchard’s quadrant is defining exactly what constitutes “Haves” and “Wants.” One way to do this is to convert “Wants” into “Haves.” For example: if you WANT to live indoors, you HAVE to pay the rent. Tying “wants” into “haves” using material association helps reduce emotional fogginess.
Curiously, for me, Quadrant 3 in Blanchard’s system corresponds to Quadrant 4.
Blanchard’s Quadrant 4 is a very curious thing, tasks or actions you don’t have to do and don’t want to do. These are probably emotionally driven. For example, I don’t want to drink a cup of coffee in the morning, and nobodies holding a gun to my head making me, but if there’s coffee in the house, I’m having a cup. Maybe 2 cups. Tastes good!
Can you relate? What’s your little peccadillo?
Links about Covey’s Quadrants
Here are some links for more information:
- A great article on The Mindmap Blog! (If you aren’t using mindmaps yet, don’t be surprised to find them in your future.)
- Excellent article going into greater depth on the meaning of each quadrant at Effective Time Management.
- A good discussion on how to determine which tasks belong to which quadrant, hosted at the David Allen Company user forum.
- Interesting examples posted on scribd.com
- Two links from Bruce Keener: Priority setting and Reviewing Covey’s 4 Quadrants.
- Dr Lam explains in detail his use of the quadrants.
- A great article from Life Optimizer on how NOT to prioritize!
Wait! There’s more!
Covey and Blanchard don’t have a lock on this notion. Importance, urgency, wants and haves aren’t the only ideas amenable to simple 4-square analysis. Long time readers know what’s coming… “It turns out I’m writing an article on that.” And it’s done, go check out Dave’s Market Quadrant.
But that article isn’t finished yet. I’m moving out of the “write” stage of my rwx cycle and into the “execute” stage (topic of yet another post, of course). Here’s a hint: “Important” may or may not mean what you think it means.
[Original post: November 30, 2007]
[Updated: November 3, 3008]
[Updated: January 21, 2009]
[Updated: April 9, 2009]
[Updated: May 9, 2009]
[Updated: June 29, 2009]
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Great webpage!
As to why someone might be doing a task they neither HAVE to do, nor WANT to do, I think that some people (mind you, I would NEVER do this…no, DEFINITELY not…not me!) might do this type of task out of guilt.
I generally try not to ascribe too much motivation for what people do or do not do. Overall, actions seem fairly predictable… motivations… who can say?