I’m churning them out like butter today. Only three more to go…breath…
The time has come for the habit that I struggle with most—putting first things first. Since I have come to Lincoln Christian College, in fact since I have been in school, I have been a habitual and perpetual procrastinator. My struggle is not always necessarily been a struggle between good priorities and bad priorities as much as it has been with filling my plate with good things and then continuing to fill my plate beyond what it is able to contain. For example, this semester has proven to be my most challenging semester since I came to LCC. I have written and read almost as much this semester as my last three semesters combined. I have grown and I have focused more than I have in the past as well.
Nevertheless, I am still cramming at the end to get everything done. During a semester, which I thought I had planned leaving myself enough time, I failed at least in a small way. How? I took on more good things than I could handle. In reflecting on this semester, I can see that I said yes to too many things such as work, extra serving at church, and too much leisure time spent at home. Did I work hard this semester? Of course! However, in reflection, I can see that had I read Covey’s book early in the semester and perhaps implemented habit 3—putting first things first—perhaps I would be able to enjoy more of my Christmas break instead of typing a paper at midnight and wondering how I will get it all done.
From day one at LCC, I knew the applications of putting first things first. I have yet to apply them fully, but I am making progress. With my internship coming up I plan to fully implement and exercise what I believe to be congruent with the quadrants that Covey explains (151). These quadrants, in order, are as follows: “important-urgent,” “important-not urgent,” not important-urgent,” and “not important-not urgent” (151). First quadrant activities are usually not ignorable. They demand attention and they are important, so I will obviously take care of those activities. I believe that the fourth quadrant is the easiest for me to avoid. As I get older, and especially after reading about the seven habits, I have found that is much easier for me to avoid wasting time on unimportant things that simply add to my procrastination.
The third quadrant, however, is where my struggle is. This is where I would categorize the things that have taken up most of my time that I now need back this semester. These are the good things that are not necessarily important to me but for some reason I say “yes” to. It is my goal, then to avoid these activities when I can. That has become much easier for me after reading Covey’s book. It has also become much easier for me to live within quadrant two. This, I would say, is where I “work ahead.” I simply wish I had put the paradigm into practice earlier this semester.
As I stated in my reflection on proactivity, it will not be easy to become proactive on my time management skills. In fact, I will probably fail at first. I know I can do it though. I know I can beat the procrastinator within me and become more effective in what I do by using proper time management tools and practicing preventative quadrant two measures. It is important to me that in ministry, avoid quadrant four activities simply by not wasting my time on unproductive things. It is also important to my family life as I am planning to get married. Wasting time is simply not an option, not is saying “yes” to too many good things. Putting first things first is prioritizing. My priorities are much clearer to me after reading Covey. It is important for me to realize that if I am saying “yes” to something unimportant to my mission, I am essentially saying “no” to something most important such as my wife or even my God.
