The 5 Choices - Part I

This book was briefly mentioned around 5 months ago and I still haven't got down to really executing the exercises inside of it. The exercises inside are supposed to identify important areas in my life to focus on, and then allocate time for them. The ironic thing is that because of the efforts needed to sit down and do those exercises, I procrastinated doing it.

This month seems to be a breather for me at work. Somehow things just died down for a while. But I don't think it's gonna last long, probably till the end of the month only. So I better take this chance to carefully plan my life schedule.

In this book, as the title suggests, there are 5 choices to be made; 5 conscious decisions. And I would be making them 1 by 1 through all the mini-exercises.

So here goes~

Choice 1 - Act On The Important, Don't React To The Urgent

I did a summary of the pointers in Choice 1 using my Samsung tablet.

1. Time Matrix
• Divide my tasks into four quadrants, depending on 2 factors - Impt & Urgency
2. Pause-Clarify-Decide
• Pause myself at least once a day, Clarify whether what I'm doing, and Decide whether I should continue doing it
• Have a checkbox for the week to check this off
3. Identify Q2 (Impt, Non-Urgent) tasks for the day
• 2 Tasks for each day
4. Identify Q3 (Non-Impt, Urgent) tasks that are distractions
• As in image (my current distraction and my strategy for it)

Alright, that kinda finishes Choice 1.

I shall end off this this quote that started the chapter, which I believed wholeheartedly (because that is what's happening to my life).

"Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important 

is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant" 

- By Dr. Stephen R. Covey