If we prioritized well - What would come first? Chicken? Egg?

About a month ago, I had an entry on “Prioritizing” [Click Here]. It was mostly about day-to-day corporate tasks and who should handle what. After reading the 3rd Habit, Put First Things First, I understand that Covey’s perspective is that “time management” determines a great deal of what “comes first”.
Although I do believe in processes, creating flow-charts and having methods to madness… I have difficulty trying to do such a thing for my personal life. That is, I don’t see myself organizing my week into a piece of paper and prioritizing ahead of time what I should do day by day. Not saying that I won’t do it someday – just not right now. If you read "the 3rd Habit" you will find yourself questioning everything that you are currently doing. It was kind of scary for me to realize how much time I may be wasting on “Quadrant 4 activities”. OH – wait. I should definitely explain the “Quadrants” and the “Time management matrix” first. This is one eye-opener we can all take away and identify with right away.

For the most part, I get stuff done in a timely fashion at home and at work – so that means I manage my time properly? Maybe. I suppose I wait and put stuff off until it becomes urgent and then have no choice but to do it. (This works great at home, not at work) I doubt I am the only one in this world when it comes to “prioritizing” that way at home. However, it is probably not the best. So, am I doing the task at hand because it was “urgent”…? But was it important? Even better: could I have done something in advance so that it would not become urgent? Covey does a great job of simplifying daily activity into either “Important” or “Not Important”, “Urgent” or “Not Urgent”. When placed in a matrix form, it looks like this:

After looking at the Matrix above, unfortunately, many of my activities fall into Quadrant 3 – urgent, but not important (pressing matters like the front lawn getting out of control). I’ve probably spent a good chunk of my career in Quadrant 1, fighting fires, daily planning for meeting a deadline and then getting into “burnout mode” shortly after. This means spending a lot of time in Quadrant 4 trying to relax and “normalize” from the rough day. Therefore, I really do not spend much time in Quadrant 2 – which is where Covey says we should spend most of our time: Important, but not urgent. Why? Because in those important activities are us being proactive, preparing for the future and building the relationships that will yield “the golden eggs”. In the hustle and bustle of life – who has time? I guess that is why we are supposed to organize our week in advance. In the chapter, there is a great sheet that we can follow called the “7 Habits Organizer”. Chances are you can find it here FranklinCovey.Com, or something similar to help you organize your week. It will take me some time to think of my week ahead on paper. Maybe when I have kids my view will change and I will make the time.
So, if I were to answer the age-old question re-phrased as to which would have to have come first? I would have to say it’s the egg. Why? If anything, eggs are a Quadrant 2 activity: an important process, though not urgent, with the ability to provide food right away, or making a chicken. Chickens are a Quadrant 4 activity. They are not really important, and definitely not urgent: which can either provide food, or used to make more eggs. Doesn’t that make chickens “important” also? Eh – never mind.