In Covey’s overview of the seven habits, he defines what habits are. First, he puts an excellent quote by Aristotle at the top of the page; “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This sets off the tone for his book, and goes on to write, “Habits are powerful factors in our lives. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily express our character and produce our effectiveness…or ineffectiveness.” Covey is saying that habits can either be g

There are certain guidelines that Covey follows to depict the difference of urgent and important. Urgent means it requires immediate attention. The example that Covey uses is a phone ringing. If one is doing something important and the phone rings, that person answers the phone. A phone call is something urgent that pops up throughout a day. It is not likely that one would just let the phone ring. Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results. If someone has to get something done that contributes his or her goals, values, or mission statement, it is important. Covey puts it best on page 151, “We react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity. We must act to seize opportunity, to make things happen. If we don’t practice Habit 2, if we don’t have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent.”

Habit 6 is “synergize.” Covey defines it as, a whole being greater than the sum of its parts. This basically means if one has 2+2+2, they have to make it equal 10. Its important that everyone lives in all aspects to the best of their ability, but one has to strive to make the whole picture better than all the individual traits and attributes. One great point that Covey makes about synergy is valuing the differences—the mental, the emotional, and the psychological differences between people. The key to valuing those differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are. This comes right to being open minded, and not thinking that everyone should agree with you, and that you are always right. In order to synergetic, one has to look at the whole perspective with everything, and be the best at everything you do.

Put First Things First is Covey’s third habit to being effective. This habit is the actual physical fulfillment of habits one and two. Habit three is practicing effective self-management by organizing and prioritizing. This habit reminds me of Alan Lakein’s book, How to get Control of Your Time and Your Life; which teaches one effective time management and organization but at a slightly different approach. Covey uses a time management matrix, which is a square that consists of four quadrants. Above the top two quadrants are the words Urgent, and Not Urgent. Down the left side of the quadrants appears the words Important, and Not Important. Therefore quadrant 1 contains activities that are both urgent and important, quadrant 2 contains activities that are not urgent but important, quadrant 3 contains activities that are urgent but not important, and quadrant 4 contains activities that are neither urgent nor important.

Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood is habit 5. This habit is all about communication. Listen to others before you speak your mind, but listen with intent to understand, rather than with intent to reply. Many people already know what they are going to say about something before they listen to it entirely. Actually listen to someone and understand rather than judge. This comes down to being close-minded. How could one have an opinion on something before they have heard about it or understand it entirely? They can’t. Covey is saying that listening is just as important as preaching.

Quadrant 1 is both urgent and important. It deals with activities that require immediate attention, and have significant results. Quadrant 2 is not urgent but important. This contains things such as lifetime goals, building relationships, and keeping to ones mission statement. Quadrant 3, which is urgent but not important, is one of the two quadrants one would want to stay away from. People who spend time with quadrant 3 are using most of their time reacting to things that are urgent, assuming they are also important; but they aren

Some topics in this essay:
Urgent Urgent, Covey Diagnose, Stephen Covey, Mind” Covey, Proactive” Proactive, Understand Understood, Circle Influence, Circle Concern, Effective People, Control Life, mission statement, seven habits, circle influence, contains activities, circle concern, activities urgent quadrant, activities urgent, urgent quadrant, habit 7, life death, quadrant 3, seven habits highly, habits highly effective, highly effective people, contains activities urgent,