The secret to success: Time Management by Celia Smith

by Amir Bakian

To all entrepreneurs who have hit a ceiling:  Congratulations. You have reached the next level of challenges in your industry.  How are you able to optimize your time at this level? Celia Smith is a Personal Branding Coach and one of her favorite frameworks is a system created and explained by Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: The Time Management 4 quadrant method: Everything in life can be categorized into one of these four quadrants:

  1. Urgent and Important
  2. Not Urgent but Important
  3. Not Important but Urgent – delegate
  4. Not Urgent and Not Important – eliminate

In her courses, Celia breaks down each quadrant by what it entails and applies it to the schedule of her client:

Q1: The first quadrant is usually the most crucial: Anything that makes you money. This is your PRIORITIZED to-do list.

Q2: This section consists of things that will benefit you in a personal development way. This is a happiness quadrant that includes things like working out, manifesting/creating your vision, spending quality time with people you love, and anything spiritual. This includes reading, writing, learning, and creating. You need to MAKE TIME for Q2 or else you will burn out / have no congruence with your overall success.

Q3: The third is anything that is keeping you “busy” but not productive. Often people get this quadrant confused with the first one, thinking they are getting things done, but are not actually moving forward. Be wary of what you list as things that are important here. A lot of people end up wasting time in quadrant 3, knowing things are urgent, but will not benefit you financially and are not very important. Examples of things that might fall under quadrant 3 are,  calls or meetings and emails that might call for your attention right away. Or things you know you need to get done but won’t benefit you right away either, such as laundry or cleaning.

Q4: The last quadrant is where you want to spend the least of your time, if any at all. This section consists of things like watching T.V, scrolling on Instagram, spending time with people that are not contributing to your personal development. This quadrant consists of any bad habits and has no ROI for your success or happiness.

Celia talks about how, “time is very crucial, we all have the same amount of it but it’s really about how we spend it. Our time is what separates us from creating or building our 6, 7, or 8 figure business from those who don’t.”Celia is an incredible coach and mentor to young entrepreneurs. This is just one concept that we saw her break down and felt that it should be shared. If you’d like to find out more information on her courses or consulting programs, you can find her on IG (@celiasmith) and on www.weekenderproductions.com. In Association With: Artistic Initiative Agency.

Presented by: Ascend Agency

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