161). Although this concept is not difficult to understand, I could not seem to grasp it in the beginning because I thought that if I planned on a weekly basis instead of daily, something would surely get lost in the shuffle. I had to read and re-read the section of the chapter regarding this until finally one day it clicked. Even though I was trying to plan my schedule on a weekly basis, I found that I was still operating from a daily perspective. Nothing had changed in my life and I was still operating from every quadrant except quadrant two. One day was an exceptionally bad day. Too many emails were flooding my inbox and my phone was ringing off the hook making it impossible for me to actually work on the tasks that were important. Instead of going into a total meltdown, I decided to answer only those emails that were important and take only phone calls that were important. By looking at the subject line of the email, I could tell whether it deserved my immediate attention or whether I could leave it marked...

I let all calls go to voicemail. By the time I was ready to check my voicemail, only two people had left one yet I received at least twenty calls during that day. I came to the conclusion that if a voice mail wasn't left, the call must not have been important.
By focusing on the task that are truly important, I began to make a huge shift to quadrant two and am pleased to say that I operate in this quadrant with relative ease. I have managed to carry the weekly planning over to my personal life and now only focus on what is important instead of focusing on putting out fires all day. What I have found is that by operating in quadrant two, I have more time to focus on the goals I have set for myself in addition to hobbies I would like to pursue but never seemed to have the time to do so.

References

Covey, S.R. (2004). Put first things first. The seven habits of highly effective: Powerful lessons in personal change (pp. 145-182). New York [u.a.: Free Press.]