The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Habit 3 Review no. 1

Personal Management (Time Management??)

Reviewed By: Dr. Jackson Ilangali

It is surprising that I got one of the most important lessons on personal management from my 4 years daughter (now 5 years). I had a habit of dwelling into my work laptop when I come back home, concentrating on some office work that I had to finish. I built this habit slowly, but surely. My daughter (as usual for kids) would come to me and trying to get my attention by talking to me, asking me a dozen of questions, or just throwing herself onto me, and I would try to engage with her while also doing my work (not giving her the full attention). One day, I guess she got tired of it, and she told me very bravely, “ni bora usiwe unarudi nyumbani, uwe unalala kazini”.I froze for a moment, and I couldn’t say anything. After that, I decided to close the laptop, her statement made me reflect deeply and think about it for a while. I later on made a vow that, I will never come home with a work laptop again, and I will make sure I finish all my work at work, and when I am home, I will spend the time fully with my family. From that day, my day would always start with planning on what task to accomplish at the office that day, and how I will make sure that they are all done in time during working hours, so that I do not have to ever go to home with my work laptop. And that was it. I was indeed unknowingly validating the principles of the Author of “The seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. I was not attending properly to Quadrant II activities, and hence the Quadrant I activities were increasing and making my family and work duties unmanageable, and this kept me always thinking that I am very busy, and I can not finish my work during the office hours, until my sweet daughter got tired of it!!

Ever heard of the saying that it’s not that someone is too busy to do something or to meet someone, it’s rather that a thing/person in question is not a priority. Well, that is very true. When something is very important to you, you will make efforts to ensure that you have time for it!! You will manage yourself and your activities (not time!) to make sure that there is time for those things which are very important for you.

This reminds me of a conversation I had very recently with my friend, Mr Godfrey Shirima, when we he was talking to me about the idea of a book reading club. I had told him that I have not read ANY book for the past 2 years; and I also told him the reason is that my job is very demanding, and I am often very busy! He told me that, if I re-examine my daily schedule, I will find a lot of time that I waste, or that could be used for reading books if I want to! Tell you what..? I know have a minimum of 2 hours per day of reading books; and sometimes up to 5-6 hours per day (especially when I am travelling, as my job also requires a lot of travelling). And since then, I have read a total of 3 books up to now (this was only around January this year). This is another example of how effective self-management can change how you function, and “free” a lot of your time for accomplishing your goals.

Let me also talk about “What it takes to say No”, this gave me a lot of reflections when I was reading this chapter, this is one of the areas that I really need to improve in my daily life!! There are some responsibilities from Quadrant III and IV that you have to sincerely and respectfully say no, however beautiful they seem to be, so as to get more time for Quadrant II activities, especially in the beginning. This is were I fail most of the times, and I need to really do more on this; because it really isn’t easy especially for our community and society where sometimes you have a lot of responsibilities and

obligations that they do consume your time. This is why is also important to learn what activities to say no to respectfully, in order to stay focused and have the time and energy for your Quadrant II activities.

It is also important to say that, this Chapter, have enabled me to come up with my own ‘Quadrant II organizer” tool, which I am looking forward to use it to self-manage my activities for my own maximum productivity, and I am looking forward to enjoying the experience and having a great impact on my life.

"Run the program," "Live the program."