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Neglecting problems
now can hurt later

Yesterday I went into my laundry room to find the floor flooded due to a water heater leak. Thankfully, the carpet absorbed much of the water, but it was still a mess. It was a chore to get things up off the floor and mop up the excess water.

That got me thinking about whether there was anything I could have done to prevent this problem.

I remember receiving a flier last year recommending that solar heaters be maintained every four years. I set the flier aside to think about later. I imagined that it was important, but as often happens to many of us, I neglected the "important" for other activities that seemed urgent.

In "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen R. Covey uses a quadrant to identify four ways we spend time, with our activities based on urgency (requiring immediate attention) and importance (having to do with results).

Quadrant I activities are urgent and important, such as crises and pressing problems.

Quadrant II are important but not urgent, e.g., prevention, planning, relationship building.

Quadrant III includes urgent but unimportant activities (interruptions, some mail, some meetings, some phone calls, etc.).

Quadrant IV activities are neither important nor urgent, e.g., trivia and time-wasters.

Activities in Quadrant II, such as maintenance, are the ones that usually get put on the back burner. And when we don't take care of such matters promptly, they can easily slide into Quadrant I and become an emergency, such as my leaking water heater.

I think this is true for many areas in our lives. If we don't attend to certain tasks when we should, they can escalate into emergency status.

In your home, have you noticed droppings that could be from termites? Is your refrigerator or air conditioner not cooling properly? How about your vehicle -- do you have it serviced regularly? Are there any strange noises coming from your engine?

How about yourself -- do you have regular checkups and health screenings? Do you attend to symptoms or injuries promptly? I recently let an infected cat bite go for too long, causing me to spend five hours in a hospital emergency room.

Relationships are another area that shouldn't be neglected. If there's a hint of a problem, prompt attention is advised.

If there is maintenance to be done in your home, office or life that you've been postponing, I encourage you to make it a priority. Handling matters when they are important, before they become urgent, will make a welcome difference in your daily life, health, work and pocketbook.

See you in two weeks!