Response and personal application

Student Name Instructor’s Name Course Section Date What Matters Most I find Steven Covey’s concept “First Things First” to be a powerful message. His identification of the critical and the crucial – as opposed to the importance of what can be categorized as the urgent – raises a perspective over how I perform time management. I repeatedly get engrossed in the management of e-mails, quick deadlines, trivial emergencies or any other disturbance which try to take me away from the bigger picture or what really matters in life. Out of all the allegories Covey used, the “compass and the clock” is the most striking. The clock symbolizes the timetable and to-do list, the compass is about values and path in life. According to Covey, being effective means beside being efficient in our daily activities, we are living purposefully. What I found striking was Covey’s claim that success without meaning is empty. He says that success is not defined by how much we accomplish in life, and not even how much we work, but by how much we invest in our strong assets in life like our family, relationships, or oneself. It shows me how he re-orientates the culture of time management as culture of life management. It is about doing the right things at the right time, at the right speed. This idea seems empowering because it trades the cult of busyness for purposeful action. Another idea I found striking was his a...