Ideally in managing the daily tasks in college, they should be created based upon your goals and what you value most. These values and goals are then transferred into actionable items.
At least once a week, hold a personal planning session with yourself. Look at each of your goals. What action items may be associated with these goals? What is the one thing you can do to accomplish your goal? As you focus on these items you will notice your goals become achievable (Keller, 2013).
Stephen Covey (1989) offers a method to prioritize activities and tasks by ranking each activity through the use of the Covey Quadrant method.
Quadrant 1 is both Important and Urgent. These items are necessary. Many meetings will fall into this category.
Quadrant 2 is where you’d like to spend most of your time. It is the most effective, proactive space to be. Preparation, empowerment and focusing on tasks related to one’s goals and values.
Quadrant 3 is where the least amount of time should be spent. This is firefighting mode because a lack of preparation was completed, either by oneself or someone else.
Quadrant 4 serves a purpose at times, but usually is nothing more than a waste of time. It is generally due to a lack of planning.
What does the quadrant look like for a college student? Let’s look:
During your weekly planning time, this is where you will notice the need to differentiate between your time wasters and those things which will aid you in achieving your goals.
Quadrant 1: I call this the Manage Quadrant. Classes will fall into this situation. You cannot plan them but they are important. The essential component is to ensure that you don’t allow others to place items in your manage quadrant.
Quadrant 2: The Achiever Quadrant. You want to spend most of your time in this quadrant. This quadrant contains the tasks which propel your personal growth and goal achievement.
Quadrant 3: Fire. Stay away from this quadrant! This is the quadrant where tasks go because they were not properly planned! This is usually where items fall which are imposed upon you by others. For instance, your roommate locks himself out of your room and needs you to bring keys to him. Some ‘Fires’ simply cannot be helped. Others need careful thought. I use the phrase: Your lack of preparation does not constitute an emergency for me. This may sound heartless but you will find that those who do not prepare will consistently attempt to encroach on your plans if you do not use appropriate boundaries.
Quadrant 4: Wasters. Figure out what is the biggest waster in your life. Recently, I looked at how I spent my time. I noticed I’d gotten into a habit of silly game apps on my phone. It started simply enough. Just looking for something to do while standing in a line or waiting in the car. But it ballooned to the point that I was obsessed in beating the game!
A few days ago, I taught the concept of Covey’s Quadrants to my class of high school seniors. I posed a question. “I took my son to the movies. His choice of movie. I hated it. In which quadrant would you put this activity?” With little variation, a majority called the activity a ‘Waster,’ being in Quadrant 4. I put the activity in ‘Achiever,’ Quadrant 2. Why? Because parenting and family is a high value for me. Spending time with my son, even in a movie I hated (but he loved … I should add), made this an Achiever activity. I built my relationship with my grown son and spent time with him, doing something he enjoyed. I learned quite a few things about him that I didn’t know prior to this date.
Take a few moments and think about the activities in your life. In which quadrant do they fall?
Sources:
Atkinson, T. (2017). The Successful Scholar.
This book, The Successful Scholar, is filled with the tips and necessary information to aid the student through their first year. It contains graphs, pictures and diagrams. There is information on learning personalities and how to identify the best methodologies in relation to these learning personalities. All of which are in color.
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By Tracy AtkinsonTracy Atkinson, mother of six, lives in the Southwest with her husband and spirited long-haired miniature dachshunds. She is a teacher, having taught elementary school to higher education, holding degrees in elementary education and an EDS in higher education. Her passion is researching, studying and investigating the attributes related to self-directed learners and learning styles. She has published several titles, including MBTI Learning Styles: A Practical Approach, The Art of Learning Journals, Calais: The Annals of the Hidden, Lemosa: The Annals of the Hidden, Book Two, Rachel’s 8 and Securing Your Tent. She is currently working on a non-fiction text exploring the attributes of self-directed learners: The Five Characteristics of Self-directed Learners.
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