Eisenhower 2.0 or 7 ways to effectiveness

Contents

In his book, Stephen Covey describes the seven habits that highly effective people have or should develop. However, these are attitudes rather than habits, and in this respect the book differs significantly from the "1% Method" or "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. By way of introduction, I would also like to emphasize the basic idea behind the book. It is not about being as efficient as possible in everyday life, doing as many things as possible in as little time as possible, but about effectiveness, i.e. doing the "right" things. Of course, this starts with analyzing what the "right" things are for you. In the following, I will briefly outline which attitudes the author believes you should focus on and how you can develop them in order to be successful at work and at home.

Focus on the "right" things

The author basically distinguishes between two areas, each with three settings, namely the part that focuses on oneself and the part that focuses on interaction with others. I would like to briefly summarize both areas so that you can get an idea of the author's overall concept. If you are curious, especially about the reasons and background, I recommend reading it. Now to the first area, which focuses on yourself, i.e. your personal success:

The personal dimension

1. Proactive attitude: you have to be aware that you are responsible for yourself, that you are aware of yourself and your actions (mindfulness) and that you can or even have to actively shape them in order to be effective.
2. Realize what kind of person you want to be and act accordingly. The author has a very impressive method of getting you to think about who you want to be and, accordingly, what character traits you want to have, what principles you want to live by and what goals you want to pursue. Defining this for yourself is an essential basis for knowing what the "right" things are for you.
3. Conscious prioritization: from the author's point of view, this third attitude is the key success factor; it is about putting principles no. 1 and 2 into practice and prioritizing what you need to implement (actively, mindfully) in order to achieve your goals.

The public dimension

The second part focuses on interaction and living and working together:

4. Win/Win: The author recommends making the Win/Win paradigm the basic attitude for all areas of life (personal character development, in relationships, in negotiations) in order to be truly effective.
5. "Understanding before being understood" is the next principle of effectiveness that Covey recommends for dealing with people. Or as he also puts it: you should first make a diagnosis before prescribing anything. This is particularly about trying to create a helpful atmosphere, taking the time to explore problems holistically and only then developing solutions.
6. Synergies: Effective people use synergies, i.e. they have a high level of (advance) trust and rely on a high degree of cooperation. Here, too, the first two attitudes cumulate in the last principle.

Finally, the author once again focuses on himself with his 7th principle, which he calls "Sharpen the saw":

7. "Sharpen the saw": this is about yourself, about maintaining and improving the most important "asset" you have. You have to look after yourself, your physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual well-being. He describes this, quite rightly, as the most important and best investment we can ever make in life. Because we ourselves are the ones we have to deal with all our lives, day and night. That's why it's important to stay healthy, continue our education and seek out new stimuli. At the Eisenhower 2.0 model I will briefly discuss the significance of this principle once again.

Leadership vs. management

I would also like to provide a little more content on leadership and management, as the author explains both terms very well in the context of his principles. He describes leadership as a high-performance activity of the brain, a kind of philosophical discourse in which you have to ask and answer fundamental (life) questions holistically. Ultimately, it is about deciding which priorities you want to consciously set, so in the end Covey's second principle is (in his understanding) nothing other than leadership.

Leadership decides what the most important goals or principles are. Management, on the other hand, prioritizes precisely these things, every day and every moment. It is the purely logical analysis of tasks and actions, the mindful self-control and discipline to align oneself operationally with one's principles. Covey's third principle is therefore nothing different from management.

Three quotes on leadership and management from the book illustrate the difference (I like quotes 😉 ):

• "Form follows function. Likewise, management follows leadership."
• "Manage from the left [side of the brain]; lead from the right."
• "Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines wether the ladder is leaning against the right wall."

Eisenhower 2.0: Focus on the "right" things

The Eisenhower model, also known as the Eisenhower method, is actually the classic of self-management and task management. And even though I personally have already dealt with this model a lot, Covey's thoughts broaden my view of the model. That's why I also refer to his ideas on this model as "Eisenhower 2.0" (he doesn't call it that himself), because he places the focus on the "right" things at the center of the model.

The Eisenhower model

First, a brief summary of the actual model. In this model, named after the US President and Allied General Dwight D. Eisenhower model, is about dividing upcoming tasks into two categories, urgency and importance. This should help you to focus on important tasks and sort out the rest. But that's where the dilemma begins - what is actually important and what is urgent?

	Urgent	Not urgent
Important	I: Crises, urgent problems, milestones	II: Daily planning, Maintaining relationships, Recovery, Prevention, Recognizing new opportunities
Unimportant	IIICalls, certain reports, meetings, mails	IV: trivial matters, certain e-mails, calls, "time wasters"

That's why you first have to consider what is really important to you. Only then can the application of the model make any sense at all. Importance has something to do with results, so if something is important, it must contribute something to achieving our high-priority goals, which, if you follow the author's methods, have been worked out and defined with setting no. 2.

The urgent and its dangers

Urgent things want our immediate attention, they are usually visible and exert (internal or external) pressure to act. The problem is that they are often unimportant, but draw attention to themselves. This makes it all the more important to decide in line with your goals whether to deal with the urgent matter, delegate it, ignore it or not deal with it (Management). So it's about distinguishing whether it's an urgent problem from quadrant I or III. And about rejecting things and saying "no". You should always bear in mind that time is finite and that every "yes" automatically means a "no" to something else.

The dangers of subjective misinterpretation of the model's quadrants, which Covey describes from his experience as a coach, are also interesting. For example, quadrant I, if you focus on it, quickly becomes larger and larger and sooner or later you will be dominated or even overwhelmed by it. There is also the danger that, in such a case, you will take care of things from quadrant IV as a "relief" or distraction. Another danger is that you constantly react to urgent matters, allow yourself to be driven by them, and in fact mainly deal with things from the third quadrant, but are firmly convinced that you are working in quadrant I.

Effective people in the Eisenhower model

Effective people stay outside quadrants III and IV (because they are not important for achieving goals!) and try to keep quadrant I as small as possible. Instead, they invest as much time as possible in the second quadrant, or as the author calls it, the heart of effective people management. It is about cultivating relationships, but also defining personal goals, reflecting on them and planning how to achieve them. Quadrant II also includes personal health management, exercise and mental development (principle no. 7). These are all extremely important things, but they are not urgent. That's why the proactivity described in attitude no. 2 is needed, because if you invest too little time here, it can turn into urgent problems (e.g. heart problems, too little specialist knowledge, lack of vision, etc.). Another nice quote:

"Effective people are not problem-minded, they are opportunity minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems, they think preventively."

Time for Quadrant II

So far, Covey's ideas have certainly been interesting, but the question arises as to how one should actually carve out time for QII activities. But he also offers both theoretical answers and practical solutions.

In theory, he makes it clear that the only way to get time for QII activities at the beginning is to gain it from reducing the activities in QIII and QIV. This includes, in particular, saying "no", which is much easier if you know your personal values and goals and decide according to them. You won't get them from QI, although in his experience QI tasks become fewer in the medium term if you spend more time on prevention and preparation, i.e. in the second quadrant (long-term time gain).

The Quadrant II tool

The author also presents his "Quadrant II tool", which I find very interesting. This is a kind of time planner that enables you to plan your time effectively on the basis of your own principles and values that you have worked out in the process. Both importance and urgency are taken into account. It also takes into account the different roles that each of us has (family, work, etc.). The aim is to identify these roles, define the associated goals and keep them in balance by using the tool. In order for this to succeed, the basic approach of the scheduler is also to plan on a weekly basis, but this can be adjusted on a daily basis. In doing so, you are always reminded to keep the second quadrant in focus, to deal with time efficiently but with people effectively - or as the author puts it:

"Again, you simply can't think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things. I've tried to be "efficient" with a disagreeing or disagreeable person and it simply doesn't work. I've tried to give ten minutes of "quality time" to a child or an employee to solve a problem, only to discover such "efficiency" creates new problems and seldom resolves the deepest concern."
If you want to know exactly how this tool works and guides you through the discovery and definition process, please refer to the book warmly recommended.

Overall rating

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Absolutely worth reading, the book stimulates thought and self-reflection in many places. If you have already dealt with the topics of leadership and self-organization, many things will seem familiar. However, these are often put into a very interesting context (e.g. Eisenhower 2.0). Why only 4 stars? In some places, the author tells too many anecdotes and stories for my taste, which is not efficient enough 😉 In addition, the graphics should be revised in a more modern way. Perhaps this has already been done in the German version.

By the way, if you want to find out more about the habits, values and attitudes of Generation Z, you'll find everything you need to know on the topic of Generation Z found.