I have received several e-mails recently from readers looking to get more information on how to implement the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in a Getting Things Done-style system.

Because this is not exactly a simple concept to implement, I have created a series of posts that will guide you through the stages of implementation over the next few weeks. This should give you a chance to focus on each new habit in your life for one full week before implementing the next one. Each weekly post on the habits is supplemented by a worksheet that I have created to help you start focusing on the new habit.

UPDATE: The series is nearly complete, here are all of the posts in the series:

• Habit One - Be Proactive
• Habit Two - Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit Three - Put First Things First, part I
• Habit Three - Put First Things First, part II
• Habit Four - Think Win/Win
• Habit Five - Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
• Habit Six - Synergize
• Habit Seven - Sharpen the Saw

For those of you who may not have read Stephen Covey’s landmark book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, here is a brief synopsis of each of the habits: (from Wikipedia)

The Seven Habits

The chapters are dedicated to each of the habits, which are represented by the following imperatives:

1. Be Proactive. Here, Covey emphasizes the original sense of the term “reactive” as coined by Victor Frankl. You can either be proactive or reactive when it comes to how you respond to certain things. When you are reactive, you blame other people and circumstances for obstacles or problems. Being proactive means taking responsibility for everything in life. Initiative and taking action will then follow. Covey also shows how man is different from other animals in that he has self-consciousness. He has the ability to detach himself and observe his own self; think about his thoughts. He goes on to say how this attribute enables him: It gives him the power not to be affected by his circumstances. Covey talks about stimulus and response. Between stimulus and response, we have the power of free will to choose our response.
2. Begin with the End In Mind. This chapter is about setting long-term goals based on “true north” principles. Covey recommends formulating a “personal vision statement” to document one’s perception of one’s own vision in life. He sees visualization as an important tool to develop this. He also deals with organizational vision statements, which he claims to be more effective if developed and supported by all members of an organization rather than prescribed.
3. Put First Things First. Here, Covey describes a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at short-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear not to be urgent, but are in fact very important. Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed upon in advance, rather than prescribed as detailed work plans.
4. Think Win/Win describes an attitude whereby mutually beneficial solutions are sought that satisfy the needs of oneself, or, in the case of a conflict, both parties involved.
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Covey warns that giving out advice before having empathetically understood a person and their situation will likely result in rejection of that advice. Thoroughly reading out your own autobiography will decrease the chance of establishing a working communication.
6. Synergize describes a way of working in teams. Apply effective problem solving. Apply collaborative decision making. Value differences. Build on divergent strengths. Leverage creative collaboration. Embrace and leverage innovation. It is put forth that when synergy is pursued as a habit, the result of the teamwork will exceed the sum of what each of the members could have achieved on their own. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
7. Sharpen the saw focuses on balanced self-satisfaction: Regain what Covey calls “production capability” by engaging in carefully selected recreational activities.

Each Monday we will look into how to apply each of the Habits in a meaningful way, to synchronize with your own, personal productivity practice. Then on Saturday we will re-group to discuss how we did. Each week you will be able to download a PDF worksheet for use as an aid to starting this new habit.

[Right-click this link and “Save As” to download the study guide]

I will ask you to take on three simple activities that will help you administer and adjust to your new habit.
These activities are:

1. Create a Weekly Plan

Take some time at the end of your Weekly Review to plan your activities for the coming week. If you are not familiar with the Weekly Review, click here for more information. One of the principles that Covey teaches is that of the Big Rocks. These are the vital commitments that you need to put into your “buckets” first. Then you have room for the smaller stuff, the “pebbles and sand”. One of your big rocks for this week is to practice one of the Sample Activities found at the end of this article.

The weekly planning is a big part of being proactive. One thing that I have found to be a weakness of David Allen’s GTD system is that there is no affirmative way for the items on your Next Action list to get pulled into your activity queue. This is where the idea of ‘Big Rocks’ and Most Important Tasks come in.

Each week, during your Weekly Review, you should look over the Next Action list with the purpose of ‘promoting’ some of these NAs to Big Rocks or MITs. These items are, by their nature, limited in number so as not to create a burden in your hard landscape.

2. Make a Personal Commitment

Commit yourself to adding one simple activity each week to implement and practice the new habit. Most new learning is lost the first week. Guard against this by sharing. If you have trouble keeping appointments with yourself, get a friend, partner or co-worker to hold you accountable. A burden shared is a burden eased.

You can also share the worksheet with your accountability partner. [Right-click this link and “Save As” to download the study guide]

3. Teach to Learn

One of the best ways to establish your own understanding of a new topic is to explain it to another person. Pick someone that you can teach the new habit to, it can be your accountability partner or someone else.

Now you are ready to dig in!

Habit I - Be Proactive

Being Proactive is, of course, the very first habit that you need to ingrain in order to become highly effective. Being proactive means more than simply taking the initiative, it also means taking responsibility - or as Covey writes “response-ability”. The ability to choose our response is based on our preparation, our planning, and our flexibility.

Being proactive means reading the conditions of a situation that we face, enabling us to make a choice as to how we will respond. Being reactive means allowing those conditions to dictate our response. Covey writes, “The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.” An impulse is something that happens to you when you are controlled by your environment.

Observe Your Environment

Do you remember the last time you were in line at the supermarket? While you were waiting for the checkout, what type of environment were you in?

(the answer is: an impulse-rich environment) Think about the “chute” that you stand in at the supermarket:

• Glossy magazines at the entrance
• A soda cooler separates the chutes
• Rows and rows of candy, most down low where children can reach them
• Small racks of nearly useless items that “might be cool to have”
• The most expensive batteries in the store

There is a reason that these items are called impulse purchases. The environment of the checkout line is specifically designed to overcome your values and compel you to buy one or more of these items. Most of these items are available at other locations in the store, where they (or an alternative) may be priced less. For example, you can often buy a 10-pack of chewing gum for $1.99 in the candy aisle versus a single pack for $.99 at the checkout.

The proactive person, acting on the values of economy and preparedness, will select the 10-pack while doing the rest of their shopping. The reactive person will be influenced by the environment of the checkout and purchase the more expensive and less efficient single pack.

Admittedly this is a very simple, even silly, example. Take a moment and think about how your own situation in other environments is like the checkout at the supermarket. What sorts of things happen around you at home? At work? Think about how aspects of the environment impact your choices and decisions.

Three types of impact

Our environment and the situations that we face can generally be divided into three types, or areas:

1. Direct - situations involving your personal behavior
2. Indirect - situations involving the behavior of others
3. Beyond our control - situations you have no control over, like the weather, or a traffic jam

Each type of situation, however, is initially affected by our own ability to choose. Direct areas are the result of our own habits and our recent choices. For example, when you choose to get enough sleep, you will be rested and ready-to-go in the morning.

Indirect areas can be affected by the influence we have over others. When your co-worker is moody because they did not get enough sleep and it is raining, you can choose to go on cheerfully.

And areas that are beyond our control to change, can nonetheless be prevented from impacting our own behavior. Just because it is raining does not mean that you too must be gloomy or “down”.

If your value is to be prepared for your workday, and be productive, and you choose to act on that value, then none of the other impulses can control you.

Sample Applications

Covey recommends some activities for learning to implement proactivity into your daily life:

• Listen for reactive language. For one entire day, take the time to listen carefully to yourself and those around you. How often do you hear expressions such as “I can’t”, “I don’t want to but I have to” or “If only”. These are reactive expressions that indicate someone is being influenced by their environment. When you hear something like this, use your own response to the statement in a proactive way.
• Analyze one of your problems. Write down one thing that is frustrating you at work or in your personal life. Write down whether the impact is Direct, Indirect, or Beyond Your Control. Brainstorm some proactive solutions to your frustration, choose the best one, and do it.
• I also recommend adding some proactive activities to your daily routine, such as:
  • Wake up one half-hour earlier in order to do one activity that you may have been neglecting.
  • At the end of your day, pause to reflect on what you accomplished, and what you plan to do tomorrow. A Book of Days can be a very useful tool for this.
  • Spend one entire day without using the word “no”.

Thank you for participating, we will check back with you on Saturday for a review of how you did.

Here are all of the posts in the series:

• Habit One - Be Proactive
• Habit Two - Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit Three - Put First Things First, part I
• Habit Three - Put First Things First, part II
• Habit Four - Think Win/Win
• Habit Five - Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
• Habit Six - Synergize
• Habit Seven - Sharpen the Saw