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Old 11-21-2006, 01:06 AM   #12 (permalink)
Chris
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 30
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I'll just echo the recommendation of First things first by Steve Covey and also The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (same author). If you haven't read a book by Covey before I strongly recommend you read one of these!

I agree with Milo regarding urgence v importance; the biggest breakthrough for my time-management was really getting my head round Covey's time-management matrix (ie. the 4 quadrant model for Importance v Urgence). After a while I began to be able to instantly identity whether a task was a Quadrant 1 task or Quadrant 2 task etc. which gives you an excellent framework for decision making when planning how to spend your time most effectively.

Also simply by deciding which "Quadrant" a particular task falls into, by definition you are also thinking about what outcome that task relates to which can give you additional motivation to actually get it done!

I've found a diagram of the time-management matrix on this page (scroll down a little to "Figure 1")
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Chris Hayford
Totalblue Interactive

"Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision, after the emotion of that decision has passed." - Hyrum Smith
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