One of my first memories of starting work in the corporate world 20 years ago was attending a training on Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants, also known as the Time Management Matrix. I’ve carried the reassuring wisdom of how to manage my workload into an easily repeatable formula ever since. It served me well through not only the decade I spent gaining experience in the grunt and grind of corporate trenches, but also through five years of graduate school, starting up a healing arts practice, and eventually running the New Earth Almanac. People do wonder how I am able to get everything done… and this is one of the key strategies I’ve implemented on the daily, and I’m happy to share it with the co-creators of the New Earth!

To provide a quick overview, the Four Quadrants help organize your time and tasks in a simple, visual way. In a single glance, you can understand immediately how to discern things that come across your desk… your inbox, your social media feed, on Telegram, you get the idea. Taken from memory, but can be found in more detail in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, here’s what they look like:

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