Stephen Covey: First Things First—Book Overview

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What is Stephen R. Covey’s First Things First about? What is the key message to take away from the book?

In his book First Things First, Stephen R. Covey presents a time-management approach that focuses on priorities, or “first things.” This approach teaches you to use your time effectively rather than efficiently. Using your time effectively means focusing on what you’re spending your time on, rather than how much time you’re spending.

Here’s a brief overview of the key concepts.

The Urgency-Importance Matrix

At the heart of Stephen Covey’s book, First Things First, is the Urgency-Importance Matrix: A task can be either important, urgent, both, or neither. 

The “first things” method of time management emphasizes important tasks, rather than those that are merely urgent. All our daily, weekly, and monthly activities fall into one of the following four categories, as seen below:

UrgentNot Urgent
ImportantQuadrant IUrgent and ImportantQuadrant IINot Urgent, but Important
Not ImportantQuadrant IIIUrgent, but Not ImportantQuadrant IVNeither Urgent nor Important

Quadrant I is both urgent and important. This quadrant contains emergencies and problems that require your immediate attention. This can include health emergencies, a work deadline, or a broken-down car.

Quadrant II is important, but not urgent. This is where you do prevention, maintenance, long-term planning, relationship building, and personal leadership activities like evaluating your thought patterns and assessing progress toward goals. For the highest quality of life, Quadrant II is where you should spend most of your time.

Quadrant III is urgent, but not important. The urgency of Quadrant III activities can make them appear important, but they don’t actually align with your values or contribute to the achievement of your goals. Quadrant-III activities include making phone calls, going to meetings that lack purpose, and receiving unexpected guests.

Quadrant IV is neither urgent nor important. These activities add no value to your life; even recreational activities don’t belong here because true recreation is a restorative and valuable Quadrant-II activity. Quadrant IV includes gossiping, mindlessly watching television, or passively scrolling through social media.

Quadrant-III and Quadrant-IV activities add little value to your life. You should limit time spent in these quadrants. Although Quadrant-I activities are inevitable, you should aim to spend most of your time in Quadrant II. This can be difficult, especially if you’ve spent your life reacting to the urgent business at hand rather than engaging in activities that benefit you in the long run. The first step toward spending more time in Quadrant II is to recognize when urgent tasks are not important and stop wasting your time on them. Eventually, you’ll shift to an “importance paradigm,” a mindset in which you automatically focus on spending your time doing the things that are most important to you.

Shift to an Importance Paradigm 

How do you shift to an important paradigm and start spending your time on activities that align with your goals and values? 

There are three principles that guide your shift to an importance paradigm. 

1. You must fulfill your four human needs and capabilities: to live (the physical realm), to love (the social realm), to learn (the mental realm), to leave a legacy (the spiritual realm). Humans get a sense of fulfillment only through satisfying these four fundamental human needs. Activities that help fulfill these needs are Quadrant-II activities.

2. You must understand “true north” principles: true north principles include integrity, moderation, self-discipline, loyalty, responsibility, honesty, and patience. These are universal principles that give you direction and context for where you are now and how to reach your destination. Activities that align with true north principles are Quadrant-II activities.

3. You must understand the four human endowments: These endowments are self-awareness, conscience, independent will, and creative imagination. Activities that nurture these endowments are Quadrant-II activities.

Quadrant-II Scheduling

The heart of First Things First is Quadrant-II scheduling. This is a time management system that helps you understand your priorities and spend the majority of your time in Quadrant II, where the most personal and professional growth happens.

Step 1: Identify Your Long-Term Vision and Personal Mission

The first, foundational step of this planning process is to identify what’s most important to you, what gives your life meaning, and what do you want to achieve in your life.

One way to clarify these priorities, or “first things,” is through a personal mission statement. This is a written document in which you outline your guiding principles and long-term goals. 

As you create a personal mission statement, consider the following questions: 

  • What are three or four “first things” that are important in your life?
  • What are some of your long-term goals?
  • What are the most important relationships in your life?
  • What kinds of contributions do you want to make to your community, society, or the world? 

Step 2: Identify Your Roles 

Everyone has different roles in life: You are a spouse, son or daughter, brother or sister, father or mother, friend, professional, and individual. Often, people feel dissatisfied when they excel in one or two roles at the expense of other roles. 

As you set your personal mission and manage your time to work toward that mission, it’s vital that you identify and address each of your roles so that your efforts lead to a balanced life.

Make a list of your roles. You can list them generally (e.g. family member, employee, church member) or more specifically (e.g. spouse, parent, manager, producer, deacon, parishioner). As you make your list, keep in mind that studies show that people are less effective at mentally managing more than seven categories, so try to keep the number of roles to seven or fewer. 

Step 3: Set Quadrant II Goals for Each Role

Now that you’ve identified your roles, think of Quadrant II goals for each of those roles. For the time being, limit these goals to things you can do in the next seven days. Rather than addressing urgent needs, these goals should reflect your personal mission and focus on things that would make a significant, long-term difference.

Stephen Covey: First Things First—Book Overview

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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Stephen R. Covey's "First Things First" at Shortform .

Here's what you'll find in our full First Things First summary :

  • How to work effectively, not just efficiently
  • Why you need to think more about what you're spending time on than how much time you're spending
  • The 6 steps to effectively schedule and prioritize important activities

Darya Sinusoid

Darya’s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain/mind/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.

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