Habit 3 Put First Things First

In this section Covey focuses on Quadrant II activities and the fourth generation of time management. These two ideas are complementary and could be very beneficial for both a college student and an officer in the Army.

As a college student I am in the second generation of time management. I rely on my planner for everything and love being able to check things off as done. Covey pointed out the shortcomings of the system and after reading it I totally agree. I go about my homework on a day-to-day basis according to what my planner says, which often gets my into trouble when it comes to essays or long assignments because I have not been planning things out by the week, like in the fourth generation, and have to do it all in one night.

Quadrant II activities are important for officers in the Army because they allow you to focus on the important but not urgent things. One important, but not urgent activity for an officer would be building positive relationships with your people. This would be beneficial when something urgent does come up because they would be more likely to help with proactive solutions. Also, it would be easier for an officer to keep a high morale among their people if they had positive relationships with them.