Page 84 - stephen covey The seven habits of highly effective people

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE Brought to you by FlyHeart

use your independent will and maintain integrity to the truly important.
But because you aren't omniscient, you can't always know in advance what is truly important. As
carefully as you organize the week, these will be times when, as a principle-centered person, you will
need to subordinate your schedule to a higher value. Because you are principle-centered, you can do
that with an inner sense of peace.
At one point, one of my sons was deeply into scheduling and efficiency. One day he had a very
tight schedule, which included down-to-the-minute time allocations for every activity, including
picking up some books, washing his car, and "dropping" Carol, his girlfriend, among other things.
Everything went according to schedule until it came to Carol. They had been dating for a long
period of time, and he had finally come to the conclusion that a continued relationship would not work
out. So, congruent with his efficiency mode, he had scheduled a 10- to 15-minute telephone call to tell
her.
But the news was very traumatic to her. One-and-a-half hours later, he was still deeply involved in
a very intense conversation with her. Even then, the one visit was not enough. The situation was a
very frustrating experience for them both.
Again, you simply can't think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people and
efficiency with things. I've tried to be "efficient" with a disagreeing or disagreeable person and it
simply doesn't work. I've tried to give 10 minutes of "quality time" to a child or an employee to solve a
problem, only to discover such "efficiency" creates new problems and seldom resolves the deepest
concern.
I see many parents, particularly mothers with small children, often frustrated in their desire to
accomplish a lot because all they seem to do is meet the needs of little children all day. Remember,
frustration is a function of our expectations, and our expectations are often a reflection of the social
mirror rather than our own values and priorities.
But if you have Habit 2 deep inside your heart and mind, you have those higher values driving you.
You can subordinate your schedule to those values with integrity. You can adapt; you can be flexible.
You don't feel guilty when you don't meet your schedule or when you have to change it.

Advances of the Fourth Generation

One of the reasons why people resist using third-generation time management tools is because they
lose spontaneity; they become rigid and inflexible. They subordinate people to schedules because the
efficiency paradigm of the third generation of management is out of harmony with the principle that
people are more important than things.
The fourth-generation tool recognizes that principle. It also recognizes that the first person you
need to consider in terms of effectiveness rather than efficiency is yourself. It encourages you to spend
time in Quadrant II, to understand and center your life on principles, to give clear expression to the
purposes and values you want to direct your daily decisions. It helps you create balance in your life.
It helps you rise above the limitations of daily planning and organize and schedule in the context of the
week. And when a higher value conflicts with what you have planned, it empowers you to use your
self-awareness and your conscience to maintain integrity to the principles and purposes you have
determined are most important. Instead of using a road map, you're using a compass.
The fourth generation of self-management is more advanced than the third in five important ways.
First, it's principle-centered. More than giving lip service to Quadrant II, it creates the central
paradigm that empowers you to see your time in the context of what is really important and effective
Second, it's conscience-directed. It gives you the opportunity to organize your life to the best of
your ability in harmony with your deepest values. But it also gives you the freedom to peacefully
subordinate your schedule to higher values.