THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

 

 

   Habit three, the management habit, is put first things first. This habit deals with many of the questions addressed in the field of time management. The real challenge is not actually to manage time but to manage yourself, to gain control of time and events in your life by seeing how they relate to your mission.

   Take a moment now to draw a square on a piece of paper. Then, make a cross within the square dividing it into four smaller squares. What you've just drawn¹ is a time management 1)matrix. And the four squares are called 2)quadrants. Label the four quadrants this way: label quadrant 1 “Urgent and Important”, quadrant 2 “Not Urgent and Important”, quadrant 3 “Urgent and Not Important”, and quadrant 4 “Not Urgent and Not Important”.

   And in business, Dr. Covey has found that quadrant two is the key to management.

   Prado, the great Italian philosopher in the field of efficiency, came up with what's called the “eighty-twenty” rule. Eighty percent of the results flow from twenty percent of the activities. Those are all quadrant two activities. All of them.

  What do you think happens to quadrant one if you neglect quadrant two? If you neglect prevention, what's going to happen to problems? It's going to grow and grow until there's almost no other quadrants. It may consume your life. That's called management by crisis, and management by crisis just 3)beats you up, 4)burns you out. 5)Fatigues 6)ya. Gets very, very large.

    What's going to happen to quadrant one if you attend to quadrant two? Gets smaller and smaller. You'll still have some of it. Things you hadn't anticipated at all. Constant changes in our environment will create some of that. But it'll be manageable. It'll be 7)workable. But you'll always have the sense that you're working on 8)prevention and seizing new opportunities.

     Now when are you going to get the time and attention to get into quadrant two? That has to come from three and four. Quadrant four is totally worthless quadrant. Can you name one thing of any value or worth in quadrant four? Leisure. Is leisure important? Yes. Then it's quadrant two. There's nothing of worth or value in quadrant four. Quadrant three also is essentially² without value except on the part of other people.

   So, basically, you get your time for quadrant two from three and four. You just keep doing it. You just keep stealing a little from quadrant three and quadrant four. Learn to say no, pleasantly, smilingly, happily, but say no. Because in saying no to quadrant three and four, you're saying yes to quadrant two, and when you say yes to quadrant two, you make quadrant one increasingly small. And you're working on thingsthat will matter most, not on things that will matter least. “Things which matter most”, Gerta wrote, “must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”

   However, the problem is it takes certain capacities to work on quadrant two. What's the fundamental capacity? We've already talked about it. What is it? You have to proactive. Why? Quadrant one 9)works on you. Quadrant one 10)acts on you. Quadrant two must be acted upon. We are made in our essential humanity to act and not be acted upon. That's quadrant two. All deep relationship building, quadrant two. Planning and organizing, quadrant two. Personal preparation, quadrant two. Exercise, quadrant two. Reading - broad, deep reading, continuing education, quadrant two.

Quadrant two is the key.

 

积极人生从7个习惯开始

 

   第三个习惯，管理习惯，分清事情的轻重缓急。这个习惯可以解决许多时间安排方面的问题。其实挑战之处不在于时间的安排，而是自我安排，根据时间、事物与工作任务之间的关联来进行有效的安排。

   现在请在纸上画一个正方形。在正中画一个十字将正方形分割成四个小方块。这是一个时间安排矩阵。四个小方块称为象限。为每一个象限做上标记，在第一个象限内写下”紧急重要”，在第二个象限内写下”重要但不紧急”，在第三个象限内写下”紧急但不重要”，在第四个象限内写下”不紧急不重要”。

   在商业中，科维博士发现象限二是管理的关键。

   意大利效率领域的著名哲学家普拉多提出了”80-20”规则。即有80%的结果是从20%的活动中产生的。这些全都是象限二的活动。全都是。

   如果忽视了象限二，那么象限一会怎样呢？如果你不采取预防措施，会发生什么问题呢？它会无限膨大直至其他象限近于消失。它也许会耗尽你整个一生。这叫”管理危机”，管理危机会使你惶恐不安、筋疲力竭、一事无成。问题变得非常、非常严重。

   如果你留意象限二，那象限一又会怎样呢？会变得越来越小。有一些事情你还是会归入象限一。一些你根本没有预料到的事。经常变换环境会产生一些这样的事情。但这是易于管理的，也是可行的。你经常会有一种未雨绸缪和抓住新机遇的感觉。

   那么象限二的时间和精力将从哪里获得呢？从象限三和象限四获得。象限四是毫无用处的。你能想出一件事情毫无任何意义，从而可以归入象限四吗？休闲。休闲重要吗？当然。那它当然应该归入象限二。没有什么事情毫无意义可以归入象限四，象限三也基本上没什么意义，除非是对他人来说。

   这样，你从象限三和象限四为象限二赢得了时间。你只要坚持这样做，只要不断地从象限三和象限四中偷出一点儿时间。学会说不，愉快地、微笑地、高兴地，但是要说不。因为对象限三和象限四说不就意味着对象限二说好，当你对象限二说好的时候，你就把象限一变得非常小了。你做的事情都是重要的，而不是无足轻重的。格塔曾写道：”重要的事情永远不要对无足轻重的事情让位。”

   但问题是，象限二的工作需要一定的能力。什么是基本能力？我们已经谈过这一点。是什么呢？是积极向上的态度。为什么？因为象限一影响着你、支配着你。而象限二是受你支配的。人的本性是支配而不是受支配。这就是象限二。所有亲密关系的建立、计划和组织、个人准备、锻炼、广泛地阅读、细读、继续深造，都可以归入象限二。

   象限二是关键。

 

1) matrix  n. 矩阵           

2) quadrant  n. 象限，四分仪     

3) beat up: 惊扰；（俚语）痛殴

4) burn out: （炉等）因燃料缺乏而停烧 

5) fatigue  vt. 使疲劳，使心智衰弱 6) ya: 即口语化的”you”。

7) workable  a. 可经营的，可使用的    8) prevention  n. 预防，防止

9) work on: 设法说服，影响   

10) act on: 对……起作用；按照……行动

 

1 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。