How to Prevent Burnout by using Stephen Covey's Quadrants to Prioritise
How does burnout occur?
Do you regularly feel like you don't have enough time to complete everything in a given day? In that case, you allow stress to build, which can ultimately lead to burnout. You know how it is; everyone wants you to attend to things immediately, even unimportant things! You do know your body is not a machine - don’t you? And it's important to remember that you can't treat it as such. That's why learning how to set priorities is vital.
Surprisingly, many people don't know how to prioritise effectively. Here are a few ways to tweak your thinking and learn to set priorities successfully in your life.
"The key is not to prioritise what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." – Stephen Covey.
Stephen Covey created a quadrant grid that helps determine where you are currently spending your time and where you should be spending your time.
Covey explains; that tasks can be separated into:
Urgent and Important –
These are the items that absolutely must be done right away. For example, if you're at work and you have a report due for a 2 p.m. meeting, that becomes the priority.
Not Urgent and Important –
Most people do not spend enough time on these strategic planning tasks. This kind of planning is essential for long-term growth and development. An example may be wanting to create a more efficient system to get your work done. Still, this strategic work falls to the bottom of the pile because the urgent tasks (both important and unimportant) always get attended to first.
Urgent and Not Important –
These are unimportant jobs, but someone wants you to deal with them immediately. An example may be that your television - in which you have little interest - breaks down. Your spouse wants to go out and buy a new one immediately, even though you don't see the urgency and have other more important tasks to attend to.
Not Urgent and Not Important –
These are things you do and are often just a distraction but really are time wasters. A good example might be scrolling Facebook or TikTok. Just insert here how you distract yourself and waste valuable time; you know you do it.
As for me -
I find email & YouTube - too many subscriptions - and scrolling news sites is where my Not Urgent and Not Important time is spent. But sometimes, I just need a break. I find the trick is to put on a timer so it doesn't run away with me. I have to admit I don't always stop!
Note to self; allocate some Important and Not Urgent time to cancelling lots of subscriptions.
Suggestion Alert!
Set aside some Important and Not Urgent time and:
Now, create a list or, even better still, log all your activities for a couple of days.
Then with your log, place all your "to-do" daily tasks in one of these categories.
By simply tweaking what you are already doing and reorganising and regrouping your list, you'll find you can get back more hours in your day and week.
Now with your priorities reorganised, you'll experience less stress in the long run and minimise the risk of burnout.
