Stephen Covey’s Second Activity Quadrant: Important but Not Urgent

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”_Stephen Covey 

The leadership expert and author of the classic book, ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People,’ Stephen Covey writes that there are four activity quadrants for everything we do as humans. 

The four quadrants go as follows: first quadrant captures the important and the urgent; second quadrant captures the important but not urgent; third activity quadrant captures the urgent but unimportant, and the last activity quadrant captures the not urgent and the unimportant.

My focus in this article is the second quadrant, where the important but not urgent things reside. They are vital things like, sound health, true spirituality, quality relationships, personal growth and gracious legacy. 

According to Stephen, these things don’t always scream the loudest in our ears. And because they are not always pressing on us for immediate action, a lot of people put them off day after day, until it is too late.  

Certainly, for essential things to retain their rightful place in our lives, we need to be proactive in our response to them. The next few paragraphs will enlighten us on how to do just that.

Deliberately Prioritize the Important Over the Urgent

Steven Pressfield also writes about this in his best-selling book, ‘the War of Art.’ His take on the topic goes as follows—as best as I can recall.

He pens: “We need to have keen awareness on the difference between what is urgent and what is important.”

Now get ready for the uncommon sense which comes from his next piece of advice.

Apparently, you would expect the urgent thing to get the right of passage, right?

But Pressfield counter-intuitively counsels otherwise. 

He concludes that no matter how urgent the less important things are: “We must do the important thing first.”

Ostensibly, this is one of the best principles of beating daily distractions that we can count on. 

You see, a priority doesn’t become a practical reality by itself; it takes formidable sense of self-direction to make it so.

What is Your Wildly Important Thing?

Now, decide on the one thing that is truly important to you, which will likely not feel urgent at the moment, as that is the nature of wildly important things. Then organize your life around accomplishing that definite aim.

A definite goal gives us a strong direction and prevents us from being sucked into a whirlwind of busy but often less productive motions. To make this as practical as possible, try breaking down the goal into steps.

It is by breaking down our meaningful goals down into concrete steps can we clear the distraction-enabling fog that could stand in the way of our progress. This is how to maintain a positive trajectory towards our serious wants.

To be clear, a specific aim is not the same as a serious want. 

For example:

Desiring to become a valedictorian is a serious want, but going to the library every day is a specific aim. 

Desiring to be healthy is a serious want but eating a balanced diet at every meal is a specific aim. 

Desiring to be a pious person is a serious want but studying a verse every day from a divine text is a specific aim.

Desiring to build or grow a business is a serious want but securing one new customer a day is a specific aim.

Can you spot the difference? 

A specific aim is not only exact but it can also be quickly measured. It is assess-able in real time, and as a result you can detect on any day whether you’re on track toward achieving your serious wants—or not.

Now, set a specific aim on your serious wants and begin your steady stride toward your own unique form of greatness. 

Please, don’t lose your birthright to distractions; don’t lose your agency to mere 'urgencies,' and take the necessary precaution against foreseeable emergencies, if you want your short life to matter at the end of the day.

For many of us, we spend most of our time reacting to what is urgent rather than responding to what is important. And if we don’t decide to be proactive now, we may end our lives with heart-crushing regrets rather than soul-lifting attainments.

Ultimately, it is up to you and me to halt our own frenetic race to nowhere, and redirect our steps toward the path of lofty purpose and greater meaning.