Habit number 3 from Stephen Covey is Put First Things First. This means shifting your focus to place it on your long-term goals instead of things that are more urgent and less important and prioritize the work related to them. Putting first things first means organizing then implementing activities directly in line with the focus that you create.
Here, things come into the physical realm. One of the processes that I guide clients through is intended to help them get to the important things. We start by looking at everything they have on their to-do list and break the list down piece by piece. Systematically I have them determine the things that aren’t important and the things that didn’t belong on their agenda at all. We then look at the things they have deemed to be important to see if they were in line with their goals. If something didn’t line up, it gets removed from their agenda and they learned how to incorporate their goals into what they work on daily. Increase efficiency by putting first things first.