continuation of 4 quadrant

Quadrant 3 is the quadrant where most people end up abusing time. It includes activities 

that are not important but are urgent. In this quadrant you have activities that have a 

semblance of importance and prompt immediate reaction when perhaps they are in fact not 

very important, and could either wait till later, or might not need doing at all. 

These are ‘time-pressured distractions’ i.e. tasks that someone else wants done now, but are 

not important for you.

 For example, we often receive emails in our inbox and get drawn into replying to 

them immediately and interrupting other more important work.

 This can be very disruptive and can waste a lot of time. 

Covey calls this the quadrant of deception.

Quadrant 4 is for activities or tasks that are not important and not urgent. These activities 

have no value at all and simply waste time. We may begin activities here to give us a break 

from the more important activities, but then end up spending far too much time on them. 

 For example, we might do some “research” into a topic we are working on, but end 

up spending hours surfing the net on distracting topics that do not add value. 

This is the quadrant of waste.

Using this time matrix helps you to determine which activities are important and need to be 

done first.