I started looking at Stephen Covey’s four quadrants again as a planning tool. As some of you may remember, I am always looking for the holy grail of planning. So I attended their new 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity webinar today. This is not a review of the program as much as a revisit of a planning methodology.
The quadrant methodology in some ways still works as does most top down planning. The challenge becomes what happens to all the ‘stuff’ in quadrant 1,3 and 4.
It makes perfect sense to start planning by doing the following:
1) Define your roles
2) Define your goals based on those roles
3) Plan your week, and day based on those goals
Of course there are other methodologies like Getting Things Done or Master Your Workday Now which are more bottom up planning methods. There has been a lot written on both of those methods.
Once you have decided on a methodology, you need to determine the tool to work the plan. This is where it can get really confusing and interesting.
While many authors will tell you, the tool doesn’t matter the process is what counts, I am starting to question that belief.
If you have a great method but no tool or an inferior tool to execute the plan won’t succeed. You need to determine the functionality of the tool.
You want to look for a tool that will:
1) Sync across all your devices – (if you use paper, this goes away)
2) Manage your personal and professional goals
For me, the search continues for that tool. I have a couple of methodologies I like and I know what functions I need. Now I just need something that will meet my needs. I have tried, Omnifocus, Toodledo, Outlook, Things and several others. Still haven’t found that perfect tool.
How about you? What method and tool are you using?
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