First Things First PDF – Stephen R. Covey

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If working harder, smarter, and faster won’t solve it, what will? IF you were to pause and think seriously about the “first things” in your life—the three or four things that matter most—what would they be? Are these things receiving the care, emphasis, and time you really want to give them?

First Things First PDF – Stephen R. Covey

Through our work at the Covey Leadership Center, we’ve come in contact with many people from around the world, and we’re constantly impressed with what they represent. They’re active, hardworking, competent, caring people dedicated to making a difference.

Yet, these people consistently tell us of the tremendous struggles they face daily while trying to put first things first in their lives. The fact that you picked up this book indicates that you can probably identify with what they’re feeling.

Basing our happiness on our ability to control everything is futile. While we do control our choice of action, we cannot control the consequences of our choices. Universal laws or principles do. Thus, we are not in control of our lives; principles are. We suggest that this idea provides key insight into the frustration people have had with the traditional “time management” approach to life.

First Things First PDF – Stephen R. Covey

In this book, we present a dramatically different approach to time management. This is a principle-centered approach. It transcends the traditional prescriptions of faster, harder, smarter, and more. Rather than offering you another clock, this approach provides you with a compass—because more important than how fast you’re going is where you’re headed.

In one sense, this approach is new; in another, it’s very old. It’s deeply rooted in classic, timeless principles that represent a distinct contrast to the quick-fix, wealth without work approach to life promoted by so much of the current time management and “success” literature. We live in a modern society that loves shortcut techniques.

Yet quality of life cannot be achieved by taking the right shortcut. There is no shortcut. But there is a path. The path is based on principles revered throughout history. If there is one message to glean from this wisdom, it is that a meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It’s much more a matter of what you do and why you do it than how fast you get it done.

We’d like to let you know what you can expect from First Things First: In Section One, “The Clock and the Compass,” we’ll look at the gap many of us feel between the way we spend our time and what’s deeply important to us.

First Things First PDF – Stephen R. Covey

We’ll describe the three “generations” of traditional time management that comprise the current paradigm of efficiency and control. And discuss why this traditional “clock only” approach essentially increases the gap instead of closing it. We’ll look at the need for a new level of thinking—for a fourth generation that’s different in kind.

We’ll encourage you to examine the way you spend your time now to determine if you’re doing what’s merely “urgent” or what’s really “important” in your life, and we’ll look at the consequences of “urgency addiction.” Finally, we’ll take a look at “first things”—our basic human needs and capacities to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy—and how to put them first by using our inner compass to align our lives with the “true north” realities that govern quality of life.

In Section Two, “The Main Thing Is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing,” we’ll introduce the Quadrant II organizing process—a thirty-minute weekly process that subordinates the clock to the compass and empowers you to shift the focus from “urgency” to “importance.” We’ll go through the process once to give you a sense of the immediate benefits; then we’ll go through each part of the process in depth to show you the richness of what it can do in your life over time.

First Things First PDF

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