Time Management for Composers: Stephen Covey's Four Quadrants

Last week, we looked at how to block out your schedule with the M.A.P.S. System - this week, I’d like to focus on how we prioritize tasks using Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants.

Stephen Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", outlined how he prioritizes tasks using what he calls the four quadrants.

If you have a 2x2 grid, with the X-axis being of levels of importance (important, not important) and the Y-axis being of urgency (urgent, not urgent) we get something that looks like this:

Stephen Covey's Four Quadrants

All of our tasks can fit into one of these four quadrants:

Quadrant 1) Urgent and important

Quadrant 2) Not urgent but important

Quadrant 3) Urgent but not important

Quadrant 4) Not Urgent or Important

Successfully managing your time (and your stress!) comes from understanding how tasks fit into each of these categories. Urgent tasks are tasks that need to be done “now”. This can be a cue that has a looming deadline, but also activities such as answering a call. Urgent tasks require attention in the moment and can’t be put off until later. Like a ringing phone, they can’t be ignored and demand your attention immediately.

Important tasks on the other hand are tasks are more about strategic value and long term impact. For instance, finishing a cue for a movie is probably more important for your career than folding your laundry. Regardless of urgency, some tasks are naturally more important than others.

The Four Quadrants

The power of this sort of thinking comes when you combine the urgency and importance into the four quadrants where you can really see how you prioritize and manage your time.

Tasks in Quadrant 1 are both urgent AND important. Existing too long in this quadrant will lead to burn out. This is the quadrant that usually is a crisis, a problem, or an emergency. In quadrant one, you are constantly moving from fire to fire trying to stay afloat. Deadlines drive you hear, and it can be a powerful motivator, but it is not sustainable. Tasks in quadrant one are top priority, but adding tasks to quadrant one should be avoided when possible.

Similarly, quadrant 3 is not important but also urgent. These are things that also demand your attention “now” but typically aren’t important or strategic for your long term growth. Q3 activities are often mistaken as Q1, but oftentimes Q3 is more for the benefit or expectations of others than yourself. This includes meetings, social events, interruptions, emails, reports, etc. Completing Q3 activities often will mark a lot off your to-do list, but is oftentimes more short-term than long term strategy and should be mitigated when possible.

In contrast however, we have Quadrant 2. Q2 is where a bulk of your success and “effectiveness” (Thanks Stephen Covey) will come from. These are the tasks you KNOW you should do, but might not feel as urgent as answering a text or email, or being on time for dinner with a friend. Q2 tasks are all about long term strategy and growth. These tasks are all about goals, planning, and intention. As a composer important but not urgent tasks may include updating your portfolio, writing music for fun rather than client work, creating sample libraries, updating your template and more. Anything you know you “Should” do but you don’t “need to” do right now.

Lastly, we have Quadrant 4 activities. These are where you’ll find busywork, but also bed rot, doom scrolling, and mindless consumption. Q4 activities and stepping away from work definitely are important as a creative, but when planning your week prioritizing these sort of events will lead to a lack of productivity. Q4 activities are most often described as “procrastination activities” and should generally be avoided when possible - at least when scheduling and prioritizing your week and how you spend your time working.

Time Management using the Four Quadrants

Q2 tasks are perhaps the most important of the 4 quadrants as they are all about long term building without having high levels of stress or feeling like a crisis, however they are also harder to complete due to the lack of urgency. When making your schedule for the week, be sure to make time specifically to work on Q2 tasks, even with all the other Q1 and Q3 tasks you may “have” to deal with. If you ever heard of the Pareto principle, where 80% of success comes from 20% of the work, Q2 tasks are the 20% you are looking for.

One last little secret, a lot of times Q3 tasks feel like Q1 tasks - but remember Q3 tasks are urgent but NOT important. I’ve learned to keep my phone on do not disturb pretty much 24/7 with only a select number of people granted access to bypass it. This helps mitigate a lot of Q3 distractions. If you can learn to differentiate between Q1 and Q3 activities, you can actually slide many Q3 activities into Q4. You don’t need to answer every call or text, nor do you every social media notification. One of the best things I’ve done is disable every notification on all my apps on my phone (in addition to Do not Disturb) so I only respond to people on my own time and terms, not theirs. And after doing this for over 2 years - I have never had one complaint for not answering someone immediately.

If you're interested in more business skills for composers check out the related posts or my free email course, "Getting Your First Scoring Gig in 7 Days" that guides you through step by step day by day how to find work as a composer with a free checklist to help you get organized!