Get Everything Done

I am curious if anyone has experimented with using the 4 quadrants method in concert with one of Mark's systems?

Tommy,
I did not "use" Covey 4-quadrant method in the sense of prioritizing or marking tasks with letters but I see this approach as integral part of my thinking about (choosing) tasks. And when I tried e.g. FV or GED approaches, such valuing tasks was certainly in the back of my mind. Third important factor (which makes it 3D quadrant method :-) is resistance - and it is Mark addition (at least I never read it anywhere before). So in fact, my "Covey-Forster-Eisenhower" priority quadrant is: importance-resistance-urgency taken into account intuitively at once.

Thanks for the awesome idea!
So, the general thought is to concentrate on the quadrant with "high importance and low urgency", would we also want high resistance then?

Ah, the quadrants...

As far as I am informed Eisenhower used his quadrants as a guide for his office staff to decide wether something would be:
a) worked on it now respectively on the same day
b) scheduled in the calendar
c) delegated to office staff
d) eliminated.

The last two were functions of there being a staff which should have been on of the best in the world. They translate into general directives to a team of subordinates.

If you take that the calendar was the only todo list in Eisenhower's office, you get a) and b) as what Mark writes in DIT about the three levels of urgency. Now, same day, everything else.

So a normal user of DIT would write the important into the task diary for tomorrow and the important and urgent into the task diary for today. An Autofocus user writes both into the list.


Later Covey used the same quadrants to make it personal: schedule the important and with the urgent things decide wether they are important enough to be done now. Forget everything else. He then used the quadrants as pre-text to justify why we should make appointments with our most important goals (organized by "role").


I don't know why Covey re-used the quadrants, if there was a notoriousness to them in certain circles or maybe he just liked the concept?

David Allen of GTD did introduce quadrants in his presentations, halfway joking I guess in relation to the question above?


Covey used it as sort of a hub to decide wether something gets on the list (calendar). In Autofocus everything goes on the list.


Forster uses the aforementioned 3D cube of urgency/importance and psychological readiness. Like the other poter I have never seen it anywhere else.

It was only when I went 3D that my task busting skills really took off!

@Tommy: Basically yes, but I rarely thought about the tasks/priorities so technically to mark them as "high importance/low urgency etc.". I view Covey`s principles as important thoughts to incorporate (e.g. to not omit "important but not urgent" in our lives), but at the same time I do not think we can technically analyse our life to its precise parts and every task in this way...that would be OCD a little bit.

I generally try to focus on important AND/OR urgent AND/OR resistant tasks - intuitively, I do not score tasks or multiply this scores or anything similar. Life is not (fortunately) so easy. The more important and/or urgent and/or resistant tasks are at the moment, the more focus they should gain from me. If it changes in a week/month, I change my focus...

@Christopher:

Interesting, I wrote about resistance, not psychological readiness. But you are right, psychological readiness is another Mark`s factor. So we in fact have 4D cube - is it still cube? :-)

High priority = high:
- importance
- urgency
- resistance
- readiness

With resistance and readiness being intertwisted, but not so simply as opposites: I can have tasks which I am ready to do (I know that it is the best task to do first) but still I can feel resistance...

I love the idea of adding psycological readiness / resistance to a matrix. At this of showing my ignorance, how do we do that?

I always thought "resistance" and "psychological readiness" are effect and cause. Psychological unreadiness causes resistance. It is not the only factor doing so, of course.

Searching this site shows some interesting results.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:markforster.squarespace.com+%22psychological+readiness%22

@avrum:
Thank you for your kind words.

Calling it a pretext is of course my commentary and in fact criticism.

However that may be though, the reasoning - which I criticized as pretext - in the Seven Habits seems to be, that in order to make sure we find the time for our priorities, we shall schedule them. Thus we define them ("roles") and give them sacred time in the calendar.

Why?

- Because otherwise these important but seldom urgent things get overrun by the urgent.

- Because the quadrant two (?) (high importance - low urgency) things normally do not happen, because they get overrun by the urgent. (And our priorities often happen to live there.)

Isn't that how Covey ties it all together?

Covey uses the matrix to show the value of scheduling your priorities.

In Eisenhower' s office the matrix is used to clarify whether something is worth the attention of the president and if so, whether it should be accomplished now or scheduled for later.

Covey uses this to make sure that you are enough of a president in your life and not only your own office staff all the time. So to speak.

In both cases the matrix serves as a teaching tool to get the fundamental idea across. It is not meant to be the TM system itself.

Finally, my criticism was geared against the notion of having appointments with self as the undisputed "solution" for the problem the matrix shows to us.

@Christopher:

This is interesting question: Does readiness always mean lack of resistance? I understand readiness in two ways (maybe not in Mark`s original definition):
a) "Now it is the best time to start this important task, I am ready to do it", even if the task is not pleasant (and I feel resistance)
b) Urge or sudden inspiration to start particular (predefined or not) task (write an article, elaborate an idea...), when I know that such inspiration/mood helps me a lot in completing this task.

I use both understandings when I choose my work. I of course do not want to waste my inspiration/creative mood but on the other hand sometimes I now that the best use of my time is to do most resistant tasks (=Tracy`s "eat the frog" principle), for which I am "ready to deal with".

Daneb I think with a) you mean the same thing as Mark does. If what I wrote differs from that, than it was me who didn't quite grasp what Mark was talking about.

The b) is a very pleasant thing and a very dangerous one. It can be the starting point to a new adventure that ends in victory, but more often than that it is procrastination in disguise of inspiration.

A general critique of the overall discussion:

The main point here is that there are only 3 axis' for the matrix: Urgency, Importance, Readiness
At some point in this discussion a 4th is added. I believe that this 4th dimension is simply a synonym of the the 3rd.

If i am psychologically ready for something, I would not resist it.

Urgency seems to be that TIME based element
Importance stems form one's values ( whether they be personal, or the Organisations')
Readiness is a bit harder to describe, but certainly comes from ATTITUDE

Stephen Covey seems to unpack the 3rd axis (readiness) when he discusses: WHY, WHAT & HOW.
WHY am i doing this
WHAT is it that needs to be done
HOW do i do this (Skills)

If all three are ticked-off, then we have HABIT

Could it be that the 'readiness' element unpacked is what SC discusses as ATTITUDE? I know my resistance is low when it is HABIT; my ATTITUDE is good, and I am therefore psychologically READY

So, there are 3 dimensions

Alan, it is quite interesting discussion - I do not agree fully with your equation: readiness = absence of resistance. Sometimes, maybe quite often, it is true. But readiness (as I understand it) is not feeling of easiness, or even feeling of urge to do the task (sometimes, of course, IT IS feeling of easiness or urge to do something).

When I am thinking about something important and urgent and suddenly I realise that I do not want just to think - I really want to start, yes, now it is best time to start. Even if it is difficult. Even if I feel resistance, fear etc. I am both ready and resistant. I am ready to tackle my resistance, to go through my fear etc.

Something what comes to my mind is G. O`Keefe saying: "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life, and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I've wanted to do." That is high resistance and high readiness together.

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And as for habit and attitude - I think they all are interconnected factors, but again, they are more complicated we cannot simply equate them. E.g. I can build habit to start resistant task (or to feel the fear and go with it further, which is something what people with anxiety disorders must learn etc.). On the other hand, somebody has very good attitude but is not psychologically ready from many other reasons...

Seraphim:

Agreed, shouldn't be limited.. The task must be ready, and I must be ready to do it.