The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey

In his best selling book,  Steven Covey lays out the argument that while small changes in our lives can be made through behavioral changes, deeper and more lasting change is the result of deeper principle-centered change.  He then lays out the seven habits.  They are:

1. Be Proactive – Choose to improve upon what you can influence rather than spending any thought or energy on the things you have no control
over.

2. Begin with the End in Mind – Know where you want to go before starting.  In this chapter, he also recommends and explains a personal mission
statement.

3. Put First Things First – This chapter is the basis of another recommended book by Steven Covey that is described below

4. Think Win/Win – In any interaction between two people, the interests of both people need to be protected.  If either side loses, the transaction is a bad
one.

5. Seek First to Understand and Then to Be Understood – If you want someone to listen to you, first listen to them and really try to understand what is important to them.

6. Synergize – When differences come up, cooperate to come up with real solutions to differences by not trying to win at the expense of the other, but
by combining your ideas to come up with a better idea.

7. Sharpen the Saw – Find a balance between producing and improving your ability to produce. If you do not take time to restore yourself and rebuild your own abilities, then you will be like the guy sawing who does not take time to sharpen the saw, when sharpening the saw would make the sawing take far less time than sawing with a dull saw.

First Things First by Steven Covey

In this book, Steven Covey makes the case that working harder and faster will not necessarily get us where we want to go.  We cannot get it all done, so we need to prioritize.  He state that all of the things that fill our time can be divided into one of four categories:

Quadrant 1 – Activities that are urgent and important

Quadrant 2 – Activities that are not urgent and are important

Quadrant 3 – Activities that urgent and not important

Quadrant 4 – Activities that not urgent and not important

The activities in Quadrant 1 will get done because they have to. The activities in Quadrant 3 and 4 take up our time, but never actually need to be done because they are not important. By not doing the activities in Quadrants 3 and 4, we free up time for Quadrant 2.  By handling things that are important while they are not urgent, Quadrant 1 becomes smaller and there is less urgency.