E043 Al Tordjman on Covey’s Quadrants & Time Management
Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 43
Date: November 22, 2022
Participants: John Webster, Sammy Damaren, Cameron Earnshaw and Sheila Webster
Guest: Al Tordjman
Start times and Segment Segments:
[0:00:38] What’s On Your Mind: It’s part of the facet activities series. Sheila and Sammy talk about a fun way to exercise the mind for intellectual wellness: games. They love card games and board games. Many also foster social wellness.
[0:12:53] Expanding Minds Interview: [Balance] Al Tordjman discusses Steven Covey’s approach to time management. Think about combinations of activities and where they intersect on important, not important, urgent and not urgent. How much time do we spend in the day on ones that are not important and not urgent? Do we get tricked into believing that the mere fact something is urgent makes it seem important? In Al’s experience, he benefits a lot by making time to deal with important but not urgent matters: things like preparation and planning, setting priorities, relationship building, true recreation. This is where you would do the work John talks about: (1) Identifying areas of wellness that are important to you; (2) identifying activities that foster these areas and making a plan to perform them; and (3) doing a wellness check-in from time to time.
[0:30:24] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Cameron received unexpected feedback that put a pep in his step, just at the right time, when he was felling he was putting a lot more in than he was getting out.
Spotify Link to Cameron Earnshaw’s song: It’s All the Same
[0:37:37] Move That Body: Sheila and John enjoyed finding healthy fast food options when they were visiting London, U.K.
[0:38:49] Running Popup: There’s a silly incident that John can’t get past. You won’t be successful getting back to the moment all the time, even if you’re trying to approach things in the right way.
[0:42:22] Flipside of the Coin: Sheila is suspicious about John’s placement of the disclaimer right after Flipside – right after where she does her thing.
Quotes and Take-Aways:
Al – Let’s look at things that are not important, but still urgent. You need to deal with them, but if you can delegate those things that would be the best approach, because you realize they’re not truly important.
John – Urgent can feel important. The mere fact that something is urgent sometimes makes me think it’s important. I don’t take that minute to sit back and ask, “Is this important?”
Al – That’s the part of reflecting you need to do on that. You think, this appears to be an urgent situation. How truly important is this in relation to everything else I need to do with my time? You might discover this really isn’t all that important. I only need to spend say 20 minutes on this.
Al – How much time do you spend watching TV. We all love our favourite shows, but if you’re spending four hours a day doing that, is that the quadrant you want to be in for four hours a day (unimportant and not urgent).
Al – I consider the important but not urgent quadrant the one that can be life changing for people. We’re looking at activities that take some time to develop. It takes some level of planning, such as relationship building, finding new opportunities in life and personal growth.
John – I see my approach to wellness as building blocks. If you know your wellness categories and your activities and you can do a check-in, that’s something you’ve taken time to learn about yourself through self-awareness, and develop in yourself. When you have the time, you can do these important activities to develop these building blocks.
John – There’s nothing wrong with doing unimportant and unurgent things for a time during the day, but find the time to do these important things that are not urgent that can set you up for a better frame of mind, for success at other times.
Al – Take that a step further. Instead of finding the time. When you start to think of your entire day and where you fall in the various quadrants, think of it as I can manipulate how much time I spend in a particular quadrant, particularly if it’s not important and yet appears to be urgent. Start to devote some of that time to the important and not urgent quadrant of doing some planning that’s really going to change my life.
Al – I’m really trying to gravitate to the important and not urgent quadrant. The other ones are a little bit clearer to see. It’s this one (important and not urgent) that takes time to build and is less likely that you’re going to think it’s worth spending time in, when in fact it’s probably the most important quadrant.
Bulletin Board Quote brought to you by Sheila: It’s never innocent.
Guest Information: Al Tordjman is John and Sheila’s brother-in-law.
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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-) Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila and Julie