Habit 3 Put the First Things First

The Habit of Integrity and Execution

Habit 3 is part of our private victory as we move from dependence to independence. Habit 3 is the habit of action and honesty. Once we recognize that we have the freedom to choose (Habit 1) and where we want to go and what to do (Habit 2), we are able to take action (Habit 3)!

To Put First Things First means that we put our plans into action.

. A Mediocre Manager has the Paradigm: I can do it all---bring it on.

. An Effective Manager has the Paradigm: I organize and act on my highest priorities.

Focus on Top Priorities

The most effective Managers focus on what is important. This is not an easy task because often time we let urgent things get in our way. Many times we want to see instant results and do not realize that many times this is only a quick fix to our problem.

Quadrants I. Important & Urgent

. Wildly important goals

. Important guest calls

. Major deadlines

. Last-minute assignments from your supervisor

. Pressing problems

. Crisis

Quadrants II. Important but Not Urgent

. Wildly important goals

. Planning

. Continuous Improvement

. Professional development

. Coaching and mentoring

. Win-win performance agreements

Quadrants III. Urgent but Not Important

. Too many objectives

. Unimportant meetings.

. Meaningless reports

. Needless interruptions

. Low-priority email

. Other people’s minor issues

Quadrants IV. Not Urgent & Not Important

. Workplace gossip

. Busywork

. Aimless Internet surfing

. Time-wasters

. Irrelevant phone calls

Eliminate the Unimportant

We should eliminate all QIII and QIV activities and then balance our time between QI and QII, with an emphasis on QII.

FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANT!

To be an effective Manager, you must plan your activities for each day, week, month, etc. Without planning, your focus switches to QII and QIV activities and you become less productive.

My Big Rocks

1. What are the big rocks in your life?

2. How do these big rocks impact your life?

3. What can you do to make sure you focus on the big rocks everyday?

We can see how important it is to determine the big rocks in our lives and how we need to plan each day to help us balance QI and QII activities. In the end, we are the ones who must put all this in to action and make the commitment to follow through. When we live Habit 3, we put in to action creativeness and our vision for the future.

感悟1   都说幸福在于追求的过程，有点道理。目标太多和百无聊赖的日子都不好过。The number 1 reason people don't get what they want is they don't know what they want.

人生在不同的阶段是有不同的First Thing。对于一个普通女子来说，学生时代就是追求名校和好成绩，工作后的头等大事就是找个好老公，生了孩子后的重心就是把孩子一路推进藤校。等孩子爬了藤，生命才真正开始为自己活，干点啥好呢？

感悟2  我每次都会问新来的企台一个问题：“如果你同时有两桌客人，一桌要你打包付账，一桌刚坐下，你该去Serve哪桌？”答案是: 先去打包付账。理由是：1。要走的人如果你得罪了，你就再没机会弥补了，刚来的人你有很多机会让他们开心，等他们走的时候已经忘记前面的事了；2。让该走的人赶紧走还好腾出位子给下一位客。

感悟3  晚上收工前，要注意企台做Side Job时也要把客人伺候好，不要本末到置。