The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

2024-03-07

When you read something, read as if you are going to teach it to someone else - your spouse, child or a working associate. It will help you remember what you read as well as internalize the material.

The goose and Golden eggs Aesop's fable - the golden eggs are the P (production/desired results) and the goose is the PC (production capability). There should be a balance between P and PC - the balance is required for getting output for a longer duration. If you only look at the P and not at PC, example, focusing too much on work and not on your health, things will eventually break down. Here, investing on PC is investing on your health. For example, in your own life, you are the producer (P) and you need maintenance to keep the production capacity up (PC).

Be proactive. Being proactive is about choosing your choices. You have the freedom to choose.

Somethings come under your circle of influence - your thoughts, your actions. Somethings come under your circle of concern - your coworkers behavior etc. Focus on what you can influence - your thoughts. Focus on being a good co-worker, a good spouse.

For some problems, we do not have any control over them. They don't come under circle of influence. Smile and accept such problems and learn to live with them, even though we don't like them. You exercise your freedom to choose how you feel. See others weakness, mistakes with an eye of compassion and not accusation.

To change your behavior, use of your imagination and independent-will. Think of scenario where you made a mistake. Now, to not repeat the mistake, imagine the correct response in your mind and when the scenario occurs, exercise your independent-will to choose the right response.

Begin with the end in mind. Think about what people want to say about you when you die. Those are your real interest. Choose today's action, tomorrow's action with the end in mind.

Leadership is setting of goals. Management is about how to achieve those goals.

People are mostly centered around their family, spouse, money, church, work, possessions, self, enemy, friend and pleasure. When you are centered around other aspects which are outside of your control i.e centered around extrinsic factors, you become unstable and tend to lose balance in other parts of your life. For example, if you are work-centered, you might not spend enough time with your wife, family or friends.

Ideally, you should be principle-centered. Principles define how you act. Have a personal mission statement defines your principles. The mission statement helps you define how to acts in different scenarios, they act as the guiding light as you make decisions in your life. You can have a mission statement for you, your family or for your employees. When you have a mission statement for others, others should also be a active part in framing the mission statement. You can review your principles and update them as required.

Use your imagination to act in the right way. For example, if you want to do well in an interview, relax, take long breathes and use your imagination and imagine yourself as performing the task in the right ideal way.

Activities want to be put into four quadrants:

Examples of quadrant 1 activities is crisis aversion, pressing problems and deadline driven projects. Examples of quadrant 2 activities are long-term planning, self-development, cultivating relationships. Examples of quadrant 3 activities are attending calls, meetings and for quadrant 4, it is time waster activities.

You have to spend less time on quadrant 3 and quadrant 4 and more time on quadrant 2 activities. As you focus more on quadrant 2, the time which you spend on quadrant 1 will also decrease as you have things planned well and you will be dealing with fewer crises. Quadrant 2 activities are the activities which are aligned with your mission statement, your long-term goals, the results and the end which you have in mind.

How you can spend more time in quadrant 2 activities? There are two ways to increase the time spent in Quadrant 2 activities. They are weekly planning and delegation. Weekly planning: Identify the roles or things which are important to you and allocate time for them in your calendar in advance. For example, if the end you have in mind is a good spouse, health and a good manager, then find activities which align with the end you have in mind (ex: walk with your spouse, gym) and allocate time for them in your calendar. Set up a dedicated time for weekly planning, something like every Sunday to plan the week. Delegation of activities can help you achieve lot more than you individually performing an activity. Gofer delegation is when you delegate and micromanage people to get the task done. Stewardship delegation is when you delegate, you set up clear guidelines, the desired outcome and give up responsibility on the activity with trust to the other person.