Pamela had just emerged from a generous chewing out from her boss. The incomplete item was on her list, but there was no check mark beside it. Not done, in fact, not started.

On a typical day, Pamela would work down her list, dutifully checking off items completed. It was a curious list, lots of things to do, some today, some next week, some next month. It was tattered with a little coffee cup ring across the bottom right hand corner.

We had to change her method to decide what’s next. Pamela’s current system was simple. Make the list, then do the easy stuff. It was obviously not working. At least it was obvious to her boss.

Covey’s rule of First Things First has a corollary, Second Things Never. Pamela began to work a new system using a scale of (5-1 Important) and a scale of (5-1 Urgent) to decide on the priority of each item on her list. Once the priority was established, she invoked the rule, Second Things Never.

This required one more step. Once an item was completed, Pamela had to review the list to make sure the priorities had not changed. Priorities often change, sometimes in the middle of the day. Check on your priorities. Second Things Never. -TF