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TRANSCRIPT
Habit 3
Put First Things First
Teens are busier today and working harder than ever.
Between school, extracurricular activities, teams, clubs,
student government, athletics, part time jobs, helping raise a
younger brother/sister, and on and on there is barely time to
breathe.
Habit 3 is about learning to prioritize and manage your time so
that your first things come first, and not last.
There is more to Habit 3 than just time
management. It is about learning to overcome
your fears and being strong during hard
moments.
Habit 1 says, “You are the driver, not the passenger”
Habit 2 says, “Decide where you want to go. Draw a
map to get you there”
Habit 3 says, “Get there! Don’t let roadblocks knock
you off course.”
Packing More Into Your Life
Have you ever packed a suitcase and noticed how much more
you can fit inside when you neatly fold and organize your
clothes instead of throwing them in? The same goes for your
life.
In General, we spend our time in four quadrants (as
shown below). Each quadrant contains different kinds
of activities and is represented by a type of person.
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If you haven’t already noticed, we live in a society that is
addicted to urgency. It’s the NOW generation. Urgent things
are not bad necessarily. The problem comes when we become
so focused on “urgent” things that we put off important things
are not urgent.
Quadrant 1: The Procrastinator
Things that are both urgent and important
There will always be Q1 things that we can’t control and that must get
done, like helping a sick child or meeting an important deadline, but we
also cause many Q1 headaches because we procrastinate.
Q1 is part of life, but if you are spending too much time in Q1,
believe me, you’ll be a stress case and you’ll seldom be
performing to your potential. Meet the procrastinator who
hangs out in Q1. Perhaps you know her.
Her motto is, “I’m going to stop
procrastinating – sometime soon.”
The procrastinator is addicted to urgency! This person keeps
putting things off until it becomes a crisis, but she likes doing
everything at the last minute because it gives her a rush.
*Planning ahead is simply out of the question.
The results of too much time in Quadrant 1 are:
1. Stress and anxiety 2. Burnout 3. Mediocre
performance
Quadrant 2: The Prioritizer (We’ll save the best for last)
Quadrant 3: The Yes-Man
Represents things that are urgent but not important.
It is characterized by trying to please other people and
responding to their every desire.
This quadrant is deceptive because urgent things have the
appearance of being important. In truth, they are often not.
Q3 is loaded with activities that are important to other people
but not important to you.
Meet the Yes-Man of Quadrant 3
He has a real hard time saying no to anything or
anyone.
He often caves in to peer pressure because he likes
to be popular and he wouldn’t want to stand out.
His motto is, “Tomorrow, I’m going to be
more assertive-if that’s OK with you.”
Results of spending too much time in Quadrant 3:
1. Reputation for being a “pleaser”
2. Lack of discipline
3. Feeling like a doormat for others to wipe their feet on
Quadrant 4: The Slacker
Q4 is the category of waste and excess.
These activities are neither urgent nor important.
This is the category of waste and excess.
Professional Loafer
Results of living in Quadrant 4 are:
1. Lack of responsibility
2. Guilt
3. Flakiness
Quadrant 2: The Prioritizer
Q2 is made of things that are important but not urgent.
It is the quadrant of excellence-the place to be!
Q2 activities are important, but not urgent and
that’s why we have trouble doing them.
Meet the Prioritizer
Although she is by no means perfect, she’s
basically got it together. She takes a look at
everything she has to do and then prioritizes,
making sure her first things get done first and her
last things last. Because she has the simple but
POWERFUL habit of planning ahead, she is on
top of things.
By doing her homework on time and writing her
papers in advance, she does her best work and
avoids stress and burnout that come from
cramming.
She has learned to say NO with a smile.
The results of living in Quadrant 2 (Q2):
1. Control of your life
2. Balance
3. High Performance
SO IN WHICH QUADRANT ARE YOU
SPENDING MOST OF YOUR TIME? 1, 2, 3,
OR 4.
In reality we all spend some time in each quadrant the key is to
shift as much time as possible into Q2 and the only way you’ll
find more time for Q2 is to reduce the amount of time you
spend in the other quadrants. Here is how to do that:
Shrink Q1 by procrastinating less.
Say no to Q3 activities.
Cut down on Q4 slacker activities.
2 suggestions to help you manage your time better.
1. Pick up a planner
2. Plan weekly.
Pick up a planner
I highly recommend using a planner of some sort that has a calendar
and space to write down appointments, assignments, to-do lists, and
goals.
Plan Weekly
Take 15 minutes each week to plan your week and watch what a
difference it can make. Why weekly? Because we think in weeks
and because daily planning is too narrow a focus and monthly is too
broad a focus.
Step 1: Identify Your Big Rocks
At the end or beginning of each week sit down and think about what
you want to accomplish for the upcoming week.
Ask yourself, “What are the most important things I need to do this
week?” I call these your BIG ROCKS.
Not surprisingly, you’ll find that most of them will be Q 2’s.
Another way to identify your BIG ROCKS is to think through the
key roles of your life (student/friend/family
member/worker/individual, and whatever else) and then come up
with the one or two most important things you want to get done in
each role.
Role My Big Rocks for the Week
Student Get started on history report
Friend Mario’s birthday
Be more complimentary
Family Take Colleen to mall
Call Grandma
Job Get to work on time
Me Go to concert
Write in journal every night
Debate Team Finish research
Practice openings
*Don’t get carried away. Be realistic.
Keep your focus narrow to no more than 10 to 15 things.
Step 2: Block Out Time for Your Big Rocks
Have you ever seen the Big Rocks Experiment? You get a bucket
and fill it half full of small pebbles/sand. You then try to put several
big rocks in the bucket on top of the pebbles/sand, but they don’t all
fit.
However, if you empty the bucket and put the big rocks in the bucket
first, followed by the pebbles and sand it all fits.
Click here to see BIG ROCKS Video
BIG ROCKS represents your most important things.
Pebbles/sand represent all the little everyday things that
suck up your time, such as chores, busy work, phone calls,
and interruptions. The moral of the story is, if you don’t
schedule your BIG ROCKS in first, they won’t get done.
Step 3: Schedule Everything Else
Once you have your Big Rocks booked, schedule in all
your other little to-do’s, daily tasks, and appointments.
*Adapt Daily as needed.
The simple act of planning ahead each week will help you focus
on your big rocks and consequently accomplish so much more.
The Other Half
Time management isn’t all there is to Habit 3. It’s only half of
it.
The other half is learning to overcome fear and peer pressure.
It takes courage and guts to stay true to your first
things, like your values and standards, when the
pressure is on.
The Comfort Zone and the Courage Zone
Putting your first things first takes courage and will often
cause you to stretch outside your comfort zone. Take a Peek.
Your comfort zone represents things you are comfortable with, places
you know, friends you are at ease with, activities you enjoy doing. You
comfort zone is Risk Free. It’s easy. It doesn’t require you to stretch at
all.
On the other hand, things like making new friends, speaking before a
large audience, or sticking up for your values makes your hair stand on
end.
Welcome to the courage zone! Adventure, risk, and challenge included!
In the courage zone awaits everything that makes us
uncomfortable. In this territory waits uncertainty, pressure
change, as well as, the possibility of failure. But it is also the
place for opportunity and the only place in which you’ll ever
reach your full potential. You will never reach your full
potential hanging out in the comfort zone. That’s for sure!
What’s that you asked?
What’s so wrong about enjoying your comfort
zone?
Nothing … much of our time should be spent
there. But there is something wrong with NEVER
venturing into unknown waters. You know as
well as I do that people who seldom try new things
or spread their wings live safe but boring lives.
And who wants that?
YOU MISS 100% OF THE
SHOTS YOU NEVER
TAKE!!!
Never let your fears make your decisions.
There are a lot of sick emotions in this world,
but perhaps one of the worst is FEAR.
Never let fear make your decisions. You make them.
Winning means rising each time you fall.
We all feel fear from time to time, and that’s okay.
“Feel the fear and do it anyway”
Babe Ruth Struck out 1,330 Times
Albert Einstein Didn’t speak till he was 4
Beethoven Teacher said he was hopeless as a composer
Louis Pasteur Graded as mediocre in chemistry
Wernher von Braun
(Rocket Scientist)
Failed 9th grade algebra
Madame Marie Curie Experienced near financial ruin before
she created the field of nuclear science.
Michael Jordan Cut from his high school
basketball team as a sophomore
Abraham Lincoln Failed in business at 22
Was defeated for state legislature at 23
Failed in business at 25
Suffered a nervous breakdown at 27
Defeated for speaker at 29
Defeated for congressional nomination at 34
Elected to Congress at 37
Lost nomination at 39
Defeated for Senate at 46
Defeated for Vice President at 47
Defeated for Senate at 49
Elected President of US at 51.
“Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt” William Shakespeare
“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
Edmund Hillary (1st person to climb Mt. Everest)
Winning means rising each time you fall
We all feel fear from time to time, and that’s okay.
“Feel fear and do it anyway”.
Be strong in the Hard Moments
So what exactly are the “Hard Moments”?
Hard moments are conflicts between doing the
right thing and doing the easier thing.
They are the “key tests”, the defining moments of life
and how we handle them can literally shape our
forevers. Be courageous at these key junctures! Don’t
sacrifice your future happiness for one night of
pleasure, a weekend of excitement, or a thrilling
moment of revenge.