Foursquare

Foursquare has always been a popular P.E. game.  Each player steps into one large square containing four equally sized squares.  The game calls for one of those red-rubber balls that are useful for nearly every other P.E. sport from Dodgeball to Kickball.  Player One bounces the ball into one of the squares of their three opponents who must then deflect the ball into another opponent's square.  This goes on and on until the ball is double bounced in a single square or goes out of bounds.  It is a simple game and yet it bears a striking resemblance to a personal growth principle.

There are four quadrants concerning our time and tasks. 

1 – Important and Urgent: Things that have to be done.  These items generally shoot to the top of our top do list and get priority status on our schedules.

2 – Important and Not Urgent – These things may not cry out for our attention, but are important to get around to at some point.

3 – Un-Important and Urgent – These are things that seem to want your attention right now, but are not necessarily of great value in the grand scheme of things.

4 – Un-Important and Not Urgent – These are the things that are not pressing and have no great value in terms of progress.   However, Quad 4 cannot be ignored.  Down time and relaxation are found in this quadrant.

Each life has tasks, appointments, meetings, and requests of varying degrees of importance and urgency. In trying to create a life of balance, we have to learn to divide our time across the spectrum.  Here’s an example.

In a three-minute span, the following occurs.

·      You get a call that your son/daughter has slipped at school and hurt their ankle.  The child should be okay, but they will need to see a doctor.

·      When you got the call, you had just begun working on a special project for work.  It has great impact on your department, but isn’t due until the following week.

·      When you hung up the call, your spouse sends you a text that reads, “We are out of milk and bread.”

·      In the corner of your computer screen, a new email notification pops up reading “FW: Hilarious video of Dog with Red Balloon”.

You can probably already distinguish which things are most important and most urgent in the scenario.  Each thing fits somewhere in the spectrum referred to above. 

Quad 1 - It is important and urgent for you to take your child to the doctor.

Quad 2 – The work project will have to be done at some point if your value your job.

Quad 3 – Picking up milk and bread is an urgent, though not particularly important given the circumstances.

Quad 4 – You may love dogs, balloons, and red may be your favorite color, but this email is neither urgent nor important.

The key to balance is learning to prioritize wisely while creating enough margin to spend time in each of the quadrants.  If you live in Quad 1 and never spend any time in Quad 4, you will be heading for burnout.  If you spend all your moments in the urgency Quad 3 you will never accomplish the important things in Quad 2. Not everything is important.  Not everything is urgent.  However, each quadrant has merit for finding balance in our lives.

Back to our foursquare reference, the goal is to keep the ball bouncing from square to square.  It will probably bounce most often in Quads 1 and 2, but should occasionally bounce to 3 and 4 as well.  This is more of an art than an exact science.  No one gets it perfect all of the time.  However, as we look at our time in these kinds of terms we understand that balance is attainable.  Start thinking of ways to get the ball bouncing between Quads.  Be a master foursquare player.

** Elements of this concept have been  first attributed to Steven Covey and can be found in many of his resources.