From what quadrant do you serve?

We can learn a lot about the 4-quadrants (part of Steven Covey's work in The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People book.)  Here's a brief summary of each habit:

QUADRANT 1 - The urgent & important (crises, pressing challenges, deadline-driven projects)

QUADRANT 2 - Not urgent, but important (preventative, relationship building, seeing new opportunities, planning, recreation)

QUADRANT 3 - Urgent & not important (interruptions, some phone calls, some mail, some reports, some meetings, activities which are popular)

QUADRANT 4 - Not urgent & not important (trivia, some mail, some phone calls, pleasant activities, "busy work", time wasters)

From which quadrant do you serve?  The tempation is to do only tasks which bring us immediate gratification and fun (quadrants 3 & 4).  Or we may procrastinate too long on too much and serve from quadrant 1.

But make time for quadrant 2 activities.  I have found when I do, a lot of the quadrant 1 "fires" melt away.  I also see my progress as a result and learn to dislike time-waster quadrant 3 & 4 activities (they don't bring much accomplishment.)

Serve from within quadrant 2 and you will be serving strong!

Check out Covey's book, if you haven't already.