Well, hello, everybody. It’s Bob. And in this episode of Real Retail TV, we’re going to explore a really important, it could be argued, essential tool for effective time management. And what I’m talking about is Stephen Covey’s four quadrants.

So years and years and years ago, I read Stephen Covey’s, seven habits of highly effective people. In it, I saw his four quadrants model, and I was so impressed. It was so important that I wrote it on the back of a Mackinac kite company postcard.

Here’s an old old, this is a blast from past. Mackinac Kite Company where fun begins. Grand Haven, Mackinac City, Mackinac Island, the Mackinac City addresses. It’s next to McDonald’s.

But anyway, I’d like you to note that how many holes are in the top here. This this whole postcard is littered with holes. And the reason it’s littered with holes is because this postcard, the importance of these four quadrants was posted on, you know, cork boards everywhere I went, every move I made. And since we had a seasonal store, I moved a lot. So this postcard has been with me for probably thirty five years. Right?

And I continue to use this model. I continue to think this way, and I thought I would share it with you. So on the left side of this is urge whoops.

Urgent and on the right hand side are important.

And so let’s talk about the four quadrants, and I’ll share my experiences, things that happened to me in retail in each of the four quadrants. And maybe you can think about how this applies to you and your business also. So in the bottom left, I’m I’m learning how to do this is guilt.

And guilt is not urgent and not important.

And the thing about guilt is that, well, it’s the worst emotion of all.

And that is useless task. Have you ever found yourself doing something that you’re just killing time that and you feel guilty afterwards. That’s because what you were doing was not urgent. It was not important. The story that I like to tell about guilt is for, for many years, whenever any of my old friends would come into the Mackinac kite company, I would leave and go have a cup of coffee or go have lunch, go catch up. And what I found was every time I would do this, I would feel guilty.

Why? You know, here I’m trying to lead my team on the floor. I’m trying to, you know, lead by example. And as soon as anybody comes in, I’m gone.

I’m leaving my team on their own, but I’m setting a bad example. I felt guilty about it. The solution that I had was eventually, I just said, whenever anybody came in, I said, I’m working. I’d love to see you.

Let’s catch up later for a beer or dinner or whatever. But guilt is when you have something that is not urgent and not important. Now let’s talk about the other one that, I don’t like very much, things that you should not feel, and that is frustration.

And frustration is when something is urgent, but it’s not important.

These are, unplanned interruptions.

Things like you’re in your office trying to get important work and somebody knocks on the door and says, got a minute? And you go, you’re driving me crazy. Right? So that’s an example of frustration.

If a customer calls and there’s a problem that your team members can’t solve and it’s up to you, that’s frustrating, isn’t it? Another example of frustration would be team drama. Have you ever had drama amongst your team members and all of a sudden you have to go deal with it and it drives you crazy? That’s frustration.

Both urgent and not import not urgent and not important and not important but urgent. These are the quadrants you want to try to eliminate as quickly as possible. And this is also why wait when you have a term, when you understand the concept and the framework, it allows you to identify how you’re feeling and move out of the quadrant and hopefully move into a quadrant that is more effective.

So now let’s talk about the third quadrant here, and this is the quadrant of stress. And the quadrant of stress is when something is urgent but important.

And that’s something that needs to be done today. Somebody needs something today. There’s a deadline, and it just needs to happen.

Things that have to happen or the sky is going to fall.

A very, very common stressor for me, something that was very important and urgent was when I needed cash. If you’re having cash flow problems and your vendors might be calling you, pestering you for payment.

It’s very urgent. It’s urgent and important that you do what you can to generate the cash to, you know, get your business back where it needs to be. And here’s what I find. I find that most retailers live in the quadrant of stress for quite a bit of time in their business.

I know that that happened to me. Right? You’re growing your business. And when you’re achievement oriented, which most entrepreneurs are, the fact that you’re watching this tells me you probably are you’re trying to build something bigger and better.

You’re always living just a little bit outside of your comfort zone. And when you’re living outside of your comfort zone, it’s stressful. You’re trying to learn new skills. You’re trying to do new things, and it can be stressful.

Now this is a time when we should talk about the distinction between you stress and distress.

Distress is stress that doesn’t serve you. It’s when you’re stressed and you don’t do anything about it, and it starts to wear you down and wear you out.

Eustress is good stress.

Eustress is, to use a physical metaphor when you work out at the gym and your muscles are sore. That is eustress. It’s good stress. It’s causing you to grow in a positive manner. The whole idea of no pain, no gain. And when we think about this idea of a growth mindset, a growth mindset, when you have a growth mindset, what that means is that when you see a problem or when you experience stress, you use it as a springboard.

You see it as an opportunity to learn new skills, to change your beliefs, to build new habits. So important and urgent that quadrant of stress is not necessarily bad if you’re using it to prompt you to change.

Because if you change where you’re trying to go and where all where I try to get where we try to get our clients to be, where I’m sure you wanna be is in that fourth quadrant, and that’s effectiveness.

And that is not urgent but important. And this is when you are working on your business. This is when you are building your training programs, when you’re building your marketing plan, when you’re going through, you know, when you’re learning. If you have the retail mastery system, this is when you’re spending time with the retail mastery system, learning, growing, getting better. Because what we’re trying to do is get to the place where all of the work oh, no. I shouldn’t say all of them, where most of the work you’re doing is important work, but it’s work that is building towards something better. When you are in front of the game, this is where effectiveness comes in.

Platinum mastermind group, Mark Turnbull, swears by, and I forget the name of the guy he learned it from, but Mark swears by his practice of spending ninety minutes every day focusing on what’s important.

That’s how you get out of stress and into effectiveness. And I try to do ninety. I can’t quite do ninety. I’m building towards it. Why? Because I’m still living often in the world of urgent and important.

So just recognizing, just understanding this can have a huge impact on how you think about your business, how you think about how you’re feeling about your business, and managing your time and managing your focus.

So this is where and this important this idea of effectiveness is so important. And that’s why Susan and I are going live on October six at one PM, and we’re going to talk about how do you become more effective? How do you take the three moves that every retailer needs to sort of put into their business to make it come together. Mindset, skill set, and structure.

And mindset, skill set, and structure, the three moves are like pieces of a puzzle, but the pieces of the puzzle need to be put together to be as effective as possible. And that’s what Susan and I are gonna be talking about at this retail rhythms. Your business has rhythms. Every retail business has a rhythm.

The only question is, is your rhythm smooth and sweet and good, or is your rhythm kinda janky and messed up? But I guarantee you that if you’re there live, October six, one PM eastern, that your rhythms will become smoother, sweeter, and better. So having said that whoops. I’m sorry.

Three action items right now.

Number one, create a sign, a postcard, something like this, and keep find a place where you can keep it in front of you and keep asking yourself, what quadrant am I in and what quadrant do I want to be in?

Number two, I would strongly encourage you to, order from your local independent bookstore and read the seven habits of highly effective people. It’s still a classic. It is still a great book. I strongly encourage that you read it.

And number three, and this is the most important one, put it on your calendar to be there October six. Retail rhythms, one PM. You’re gonna love it. Put it on your calendar.

Be there live. I am absolutely confident that when you are there at the end of that hour, you’re gonna go, wow, that was time really, really well spent. Alright, everybody. It’s Bob, and we will see you next week.