What’s In Your Quadrant (II)?
"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." — Stephen R. Covey
In healthcare, triage becomes second nature. We know how to assess and act quickly based on urgency and importance—especially when lives are at stake. But when it comes to our personal lives, we often reverse the process. The constant barrage of emails, meetings, and the "tyranny of the urgent" crowds out what’s truly important—reflection, renewal, connection, and growth. Stephen Covey’s third habit, “Put First Things First,” challenges us to bring the clarity of triage into our daily living, not just our clinical work.
When I moved to Roanoke three decades ago, I connected with a physician colleague who, like me, was a Covey enthusiast. Amid our hectic and overloaded professional lives, we realized the only way to stay grounded was to “schedule our priorities.” So, we began meeting weekly for brief lunches, Day-Timers in hand, holding each other accountable and asking tough questions about how to truly prioritize our time, energy, and too many “priorities”.
Covey’s Time Matrix offered a helpful guide: four quadrants based on urgency and importance. Most of us spend our time in Quadrant I (urgent and important) or III (urgent but not important), seldom reaching Quadrant II (important but not urgent)—the sweet-spot for planning, relationship-building, and personal growth. Yet research consistently shows that investing time in Quadrant II leads to greater well-being, lower stress, and better leadership. It takes discipline and intention to protect this space, especially in a culture that constantly rewards “serial urgency” over meaning.
One of the most transformative habits my colleague and I adopted was scheduling what Covey called the “early morning victory”, which built on Habit 2 (“Begin with the End in Mind”) by scheduling daily time for some of those priorities in the early morning, before the demands of the day took over. For me, this started with small but sacred steps: early morning workouts, journaling and writing poetry, protected weekly reflective time, and family commitments that gave me “permission” to decline early morning meetings. These shifts didn’t lighten my workload—but they changed my relationship with it. I felt more centered, intentional, and paradoxically, more productive. The more I prioritized what mattered most, the less overwhelmed I felt by everything else. And I learned a crucial truth: we don’t find time for the important—we make it.
This week, ask yourself: What are your “first things”? Not in theory, but in practice. What activities bring clarity, connection, or joy? Try carving out a few moments each morning to engage with them. Better yet, invite your PeerRx buddy to do the same and share your experiences. These small changes can realign your day in powerful ways. Because the goal isn’t just to do more – it’s to do more of what matters most. That’s the kind of triage that truly heals. What’s in your Quadrant?