:: :: seven, eight :: ::

i know back in the nineties, steven covey and his seven habits were both popular and also considered a little cliche. maybe a bit overexposed or maybe a bit misunderstood? but i had to read his book for a class in college and i remember thinking that it was pretty smart. to this day i think often about covey's third habit: putting first things first. it's a habit that's all about prioritizing. about understanding the difference between what's important and what's urgent and what's both.

as i work on this blog and my shop and the new design blog, and as i balance all of this with being a mother and a wife and a daughter and a sister, and as i see things like showers and haircuts and leg-shaving being neglected, i find i think of covey and his seven habits more and more.

i think about priorities. i think about being proactive. i think about what covey calls "beginning with the end in mind" an awful lot. i feel like i'm doing a good job and also not doing such a great job. like i need a day to sit and think and then a day to organize my thoughts. i feel like i spend 3 minutes here and six minutes there and a couple of random minutes here and there throughout the day thinking and processing and setting goals and considering priorities, but that doing it that way is making my thinking and processing and all about half as effective.

but i also feel like i'm having too much fun to stop and spend two whole days just thinking and processing. i have things i want to do and things i need to do.

so i'm thinking i need to figure out how to be effective more efficiently. perhaps that's the eighth habit?

(note: i do know that covey published a book called the 8th habit and i'm sure that if i googled it i could find out what the eighth habit really is, but i like to think that i came up with it myself. so there.)