First Things First
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
First Things First (ISBN 0-684-80203-1), published in 1994, is a self-help book written by Stephen Covey with A. Roger and Rebecca R. Merrill. It reveals a new time management paradigm that, if established as a habit, is supposed to help a person achieve "effectiveness" by aligning him- or herself to "First Things".
Apart from this very popular work, Covey has also written a number of other books, such as The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; Power of the Seven Habits; Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families and Beyond the Seven Habits.
In the book, Covey describes a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at long-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear to be urgent, but are in fact less important. This is his 2x2 matrix: classifying tasks as urgent and non-urgent on one axis, and important or non-important on the other axis. His Quadrant II has the items that are non-urgent and are important. These are the ones he believes we are likely to neglect; but, should focus on to achieve effectiveness.
Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed in advance, rather than on prescribing detailed work plans.
