It’s high time I should prioritize on using my precious 24 hours a day for some much needed Quadrant II activities. The Quadrant II concept is taken from the time management matrix of Stephen Covey’s bestseller book “First Things First”. It’s a guide to help us identify which of our daily activities matter most and how we should consider them as our top priority in how we spend our limited time.

The four quadrants of time management:
Q1 = urgent, important = quadrant of necessity
Q2 = not urgent, important = quadrant of quality and personal leadership
Q3 = urgent, not important = quadrant of deception
Q4 = not urgent, not important = quadrant of waste

The Quadrant II concept according to Covey is a time management concept of investing one’s time in life’s more important activities such as building relationships, planning ahead, doing regular exercise or activities that enrich one’s physical, social, mental and spiritual aspects. These are not urgent activities but they are the big rocks in life, and investing time in these endeavours would surely enrich one’s life in the long run.  

One such example of a Quadrant II activity is bonding time with your parents or children, business partners or co-workers. No matter how busy a person may be, building quality relationships with others is an investment that produces satisfying results. When you are in good terms with others, at home or at work, you get genuine support, loyalty, love and respect from them; family and career matters become much easier to handle then, no time is spent on petty arguments and misunderstandings that are such huge time-wasters.

Managing one’s time can be such a challenge. No matter how well-planned our goals may be, there are things that happen beyond our control. The best response is to learn from them, regardless of who or what was responsible for the delay or cancellation. Oftentimes, such delays not only serve as life lessons but are actually blessings in disguise.