Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Research Paper Example

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R Covey’s, the seven habits of highly effective people is one for the world’s most successful motivational books, it was first published in 1989 and to date it has sold more than 15 million copies and was translated into over 38 languages. In a nutshell, Covey proposes an approach to life and one attainment of their goals by aligning their actions to the “True north”, even today over two decades since the release, the book continues to inspire millions from all walks of life. His advice is timeless and despite the radically divergent realities on modern day, the book is still every bit as relevant as it was in posterity. In 2011, the Times magazines even listed the text as one of the twenty five most influential business books of the century and this goes to underscore the enduring relevance of its contents. The subject of this paper is to carry out a critical analysis of the third habit “put first things first” by providing a general overview contextualizing it among the other habits and finally discussing its practical application. In the third habit, Covey encourages the reader to prioritize their various daily tasks and provides a matrix through which they can plan and organize their time, by looking at the management matrix on can reflect on where they spend most of the day and determine how much of one’s time is spent in the prosperity quadrant (Covey, 1989). Covey postulates that one should learn how to prioritize their daily and weekly activities in such a way that they distinguish between what is urgent and important, this way they can manage their time effectively. He suggests that when one is organized thus, they can proportionality distribute time among their various activates and at the end of the day, organized people are often more comfortable and effective than disorganized people. In this habit, Covey divided the time people spend in 4 quadrants and for each quadrant he used a type of person to describe the stage, with the time quadrants being divided between the important and urgent. Important things are categorized as thing that contribute to ones achievement of ones goals urgent things on the other hand are those that call for immediate attention and one often has to drop the long term activities to address this ones. In quadrant one, there is the procrastinator who puts of things until they become urgent, this type of person is likely to barely make deadline and they will keep postponing assignments appointments and other activities until a they can no longer avoid them (Covey, 1989). The second type of time manager is the prioritizer and they are described as the ideal since in their true form they will make advance plans plan on weekly as opposed to daily basis and prioritize their activities based on importance or urgency. They identify the big rocks and the pebbles which are hypothetically used to refers to important and not so important things respectively, they separate them and attend to the needs of the big rocks first. Covey advises that one should spend most of their time in this quadrant as opposed to the others where activities are either postponed or side tracked by less critical ones. In the third quadrant there is the yes man who says yes to every request that are important to other people but not to them, in this quadrant people will often agree to offer assistance to others even if it derails the progress of their own activities and achievement of goals. Cover suggests that while own should take time of their schedule to assist others, they should nevertheless not frequently let themselves get distracted and learn to say no as opposed to trying to please everyone which is ultimately and attempt in futility. Finally there is the slacker in quadrant four two who no activity is important they waste a lot of time in excess relaxation such as watching TV and or generally resting too much and not working enough. Covey argues that relaxation should not replace work and while it is important one should organize their time so that they can relax but also accomplish their goals. If one wants to be relaxed, they should spend more time in quadrant two so that they will have enough time after their important activities for rest and relaxation. There is no doubt that the habit is illustrative of how one should lead their life if they want to become an effective time manager, the four quadrants effectively describe the habits of most people although it is difficult for anyone to fall exclusively in one category. However, anyone reading the book will find that in each category there are attributes negative or positive that apply to them in one way or another. By creating the quadrants, the writer succeeds in categorizing human behavior in regard to time management such that does not only see what they are supposed to be but also what they probably are. Covey does not just tell the reader how to live their life from a superior or condescending point of view as many motivational writers are wont to, instead he tries to show them the different challenges they may face in achieving the ideal time management status and suggests compromises. Nevertheless , the habit is not perfect and like anything else it has its weak points, for example the prioritizer in quadrat two is simply too perfect for life while the other quadrants such as slacker are too imperfect to be realistic (Covey, 1989). At the end of the day, one may relate to some parts of some of the models but cannot reasonably relate to any one model in its entirety. In this it is possible that Covey failing to determine what standard of time management is most suitable or related to a normal person simply list down the best and worst case scenarios and leave it up to the reader to choose which they think is best for them. In addition, the quadrants are overly negative since only one describes a personality the reader would like to model the, procrastinator, slacker and the yes man are all extreme negative and the priotizer the extreme positive none which can realistically exist in a single person. Despite the criticism on their abstraction, the teachings in the habit are readily applicable in life albeit not uniformly, everyone feels that they do not want to work at some point and the desire to procrastinate or slack of has is universal. However, when one applies the third habit they easily learn to control and plan their life so they can place themselves in the prioritization quadrant, although it is clear that one cannot achieve the perfection described therein they can at least work toward the ideal. Covey proposes that time cannot be managed, people can only manage themselves (Covey, 1989), therefore there is actually no such thing as time management but people management, and this could not be truer. In life, people need must learn how to manage and prioritize their activities, and put the first thing first, otherwise a lot of time can be wasted on irrelevant issues or activities while key concerns remain unaddressed. When one chooses for instance to procrastinate or slack around they will imagine they are wasting time but in reality they are actually only wasting their efforts since everyone is given the same amount of time and at the end of the day it is the activities we manage to place within the time that count. Shortly after the book was published, President Bill Clinton invited the author to counsel, him on how to integrate the habits in his presidency this is probably the greatest tribute paid to the book and its author. When the book was declared among the most influential in the world, the fact that the leader of the free world wanted to and actually implemented it in his leadership must have been one of the factors considered. Ultimately, the book directly or indirectly affected millions of people even those who did not read it as its tactics were applied by leaders and managers world over. In real life situations, the habit of putting first thing first beginning with an end in mind is probably one of the most realistic and practical lessons one can get from the book. As a human being, everyone is susceptible to the desire to slack off and ignore put of important things so they may relax, while this is admittedly not always a bad idea effective time management requires that managers learn to prioritize their needs so they can proportionately make time for all the activities. Covey provides much needed insight into the avenues through which time is wasted, bearing in mind that time is a precious and limited resource, the lesson provide in respect to its management is invaluable and anyone aspiring to achieve success in business or personal life will greatly benefit from reflecting on the third habit. Reference Covey, S. R. (1989). Organizing change: Upward Spiral. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-6951-9. Read More