Not Everything Important Comes with Urgency
By: Dr. Tim

Someone asked me the other day, “Dr. Tim, you are always on me to shore up the four pillars of my life (Health, Wealth, Relationships and Character Development), but how are you doing in your personal life with those pillars?”

I thought that was a legitimate question. It made me reflect for awhile, and I came up with a short answer: “Listen carefully to what I say and write, but don’t watch me too closely.” What I teach to others is a system I have been working on for years that has helped me become successful. But just like you, I continue to work on improving my life daily.

Improving on the four pillars is easier to teach than to do because improvement is a constant battle. There is always room for improvement in each of the four pillars, no matter how good your expertise may be in a particular pillar. The problem in finding and implementing improvement starts when you allow other things to get in your way of accomplishing the goals you set.

Interestingly, if you have ever read Stephen Covey’s book, Putting First Things First, you may already realize the four pillars I deem important to a successful life are all Quadrant II items, meaning they are important, but not urgent things. In the book, Covey tackles time management by dividing tasks into four Quadrants.

Quadrant I features things that are urgent and important. These include things like going to work and attending important meetings and appointments.

Quadrant III is full of things that are urgent but not important. These include things that tend to get your attention and capture your time but do not improve your life long-term. Quadrant III features things like personal phone calls, time spent around the water cooler at work, and dealing with a “mini-crisis”.

Quadrant IV is where things neither important nor urgent fall. These are the true time wasters like watching TV, surfing the internet and playing video games.

That’s why the items in Quadrant II, which include the four pillars, need you to develop a task list. They are the things in your life you deem important, but you literally have to make yourself do them because they are not urgent. They do not have phones that ring or alarms that go off.

Ironically, the four pillars needed to make you feel truly happy and accomplished happen to fall into Quadrant II. That is why you must make a conscious effort to work on them. Because of this, I really cannot give you an easy answer as to how I am doing. But I can share with you how I am currently working on improving the four pillars of my life daily by sharing with you one of my task lists. Then, in the next several newsletters, I will outline each area in more detail.

I have discovered the key for me to be successful in the four pillars is to focus my yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals on these four areas at the same time that I am focusing on the other “stuff” that must be done. If I do not do that, I tend to allow Quadrant I and III things to take over my life. So I convert the most important things in my life into daily tasks, just as I do any other appointments or to-do items for the day.

My task list yesterday was nothing fancy. In fact, it looked like this:

1) Health:
No Soda
Juicing x 1
Supplements
Eating Clean
PX90 workout

2) Wealth:
E-mail Mentor
Talk with CPA Regarding Taxes
Talk with Attorney
Finish Vitamin Letter
Send Last Book Draft to Publisher

3) Relationships:
Note of Appreciation to Wife
Text Message Children
Lunch with Parents, Wife and Kids
Time with Family Playing Games
Show Wife I Love her Four Ways (Touching, Telling, Listening, Showing)

4) Character Development:
Prayer
Meditation
Scripture Reading
Studying for 2 hours
Reading
Hour of Power

Had I not written those things on my task list for the day, I probably would not have accomplished most of them. I am not required to do them on a deadline, so I have to make a conscious effort to do them.

Those items were not randomly picked. If you read my article last week, you know I took them from my weekly goal list, which came from my monthly list, which came from my yearly goals, which come from my life goals and values and mission statement.

So again, I encourage you to listen to me carefully, but don’t watch me too closely. I am learning to be better right along with you. The important part is, we are doing it together. Each and every day we make a conscious decision to Live Every Minute of our lives. It is in Living Every Minute that our lives will be full and rich.

Don’t spend too much time in the past, let it go. Plan for the future, but don’t dwell there, for it may or may not come out the way you plan. Spend today in today. Be present, and Live Every Minute.

[Ed. Note: If you missed Dr. Tim's article last week on goal setting, be sure to watch the step-by-step video he posted on his blog.]