In the workplace, managers shape the team’s energy. If a manager is reactive, frantic, and constantly in crisis mode, the whole team follows. You’ve probably seen it — the constant firefighting, the adrenaline-fuelled fixes, the endless “urgent” tasks. It’s exhausting.

But there’s a better way.

The 4 Quadrants of Time Management

By using the time quadrant from Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” to analyse and filter our work and personal lives, we can really get clear on what activities are moving the needle, and which ones are just draining us.

In my own experiences in the construction industry, most of the work completed is in Quadrant 1 (Urgent & Important) and Quadrant 3 (Urgent & Not-Important). For the most part the Quadrant 1 activities arise because they weren’t actioned when they were Quadrant 2 (Not Urgent, Important) activities.

Examples of neglected quadrant 2 activities becoming quadrant 1 crises include:

• Neglected Procurement (Quadrant II) becoming panicked call around to everyone you know calling in favours to deliver something over budget and compromising on design.
• Inadequate long-term planning (Quadrant II) again becoming last minute frantic rush trying to organise resources, subcontractors and materials. The whole team gets pulled in to resolve what was a one-person activity.
• Missed design reviews (Quadrant) becoming hundreds of urgent RFIs to the design consultant when the subcontractor is standing onsite trying to construct.

Stuck in a Crisis Trap

So why do we keep repeating this?

Well, it’s because we are often too busy dealing with the current crisis to deal with the longer-term important tasks, which then become crises that prevent us from looking at the next long term activity. It’s a crisis trap that’s hard to escape.

The crisis trap affects your entire life – you put in extra hours at work to deal with all the crises, which means you don’t have time to exercise and less time to see your family & friends. This stresses you even more which erodes your productivity and ability to make good decisions. Worst of all, it can be addictive, particularly for the people that can handle the pressure. As you always sorting problems and issues, you can get a real sense of achievement and camaraderie with your team. Everyone always pulls together and gets things sorted. But eventually everyone burnouts, makes a mistake that’s not fixable, or just simply gets over “being under the pump”.

I’m sure you can see how living a crisis trap is unsustainable.

And yet, we accept it.

We say, “Just until the end of this project.”, that once we get through this deadline things will get better.

But do they ever?

In my experience, you may get a reprieve for a relatively short period of time, but you feel like a boxer up against the ropes. Then before you know it, you’ve bounced off the ropes into the next crisis. There is never an opportunity to take stock, get on top of your priorities, and plan far enough ahead to get out of the crisis trap.

Escaping the Crisis Trap

Getting out of this vicious cycle of urgency and crisis management requires a rethink of your approach to work and life in generally.

Start by auditing your time over 2 weeks.

Every 30- 60mins, add the activities you are spending time on to a list. At the end of the 2 weeks sort the activities into the 4 quadrants.

(I have to credit Dan Martell’s book “Buy Back Your Time” for this tactic)

Struggling to decide if something’s important? Ask:

“What would happen if I didn’t do this?”

If the answer is nothing, or insignificant consequences, then it’s not important.

A good example on construction sites is unnecessary chat and repeated discussions about the same issues.

With the analysis done do you notice anything? How much time are you spending in each quadrant? If you are spending any time in Quadrants III & IV, you’ve immediately found time you can save.

Here’s how to act on the results:

• Take the Quadrant IV activities and delete these from your life immediately.
• Next review the Quadrant IIIs which of these are false crises? Think all the “urgent” ministerial requests from the comms team, or just generally attending every meeting or responding to every email. If you have people reporting to you, see if you can delegate some of these activities to them (also coach them on how to do their own time quadrant audit).
• Alright you now have found time to focus on what’s important. But how to utilise it? Well focus on the Quadrant II activities that you have been neglecting to prevent them from becoming crises in the future. Over time you will find that the frequency of crises will reduce. Giving you more time to introduce additional Quadrant II activities.

At this point you should write out a list of all the things you want to spend time on in your life – be it exercise more, spend more time with friends, travel, pick up a new hobby, whatever it is. Then introduce these into your life.

Help Spring Others from the Trap

Now I know what you are thinking, everyone else is still operating in crisis mode, and I will keep getting sucked in. The first thing I want you to remember is that someone else’s crisis is not your crisis. Why should you take the monkey off someone else’s back because they are negligent or unorganised? Every time you do, you just reinforce this behaviour.

Push back (respectfully). And when you can, coach others to use the quadrant system. It can be transformative, not just for individuals, but for entire teams.

Feeling Effective, Not Busy

With the time quadrant system in place, you should start to feel on top of these. You will achieve more in the same or less time than before. You will feel effective, productive and in control – not just busy.

And maybe, when people ask you “How are you?”, you’ll finally feel free to say:

“I’M GREAT.”

“I’M WINNING”.

“I’M HAPPY.”

…and actually mean it.

If you’d like some tips on how to implement this system in your life or workplace get in touch.