Are you ready to discover the keys to greater productivity and lead your life and team with principles that stand the test of time? Welcome to The Franklin Planner Podcast, your weekly guide to achieving your best life through proven strategies, timeless values, and expert insights. Whether you’re looking for ways to boost your personal productivity, lead your team to new heights, or find lasting success, this podcast is your trusted companion on the path to intentional living.
For more than 40 years, Franklin Planner has helped millions infuse their lives with meaning and clarity. Inspired by the principles of Dr. Stephen R. Covey and his groundbreaking work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this podcast builds on that enduring legacy. Hosted by Franklin Planner Board Member and Owner John Harding, alongside industry expert George Wright III, each episode dives deep into the essential habits, disciplines, and leadership principles that transform both individuals and teams.
Together, John and George bring decades of experience, combined with interviews from accomplished business leaders, productivity experts, and success coaches, offering valuable lessons you can apply today. From overcoming roadblocks and staying focused on the “Big Rocks” in your life to fostering collaboration and trust in your team, the discussions are rich with actionable takeaways and practical wisdom.
The Franklin Planner Podcast is more than a tool for learning; it’s an invitation to a community committed to growth, purpose, and intentional living. If you’re ready to take charge of your time, lead with integrity, and craft a legacy of success, this is the podcast for you. Tune in weekly, and let’s unlock your full potential—one timeless principle at a time.
In this episode of the Franklin Planner Podcast, host George Wright III explores the common struggle of feeling busy but unproductive. Drawing on the insights of Dr. Stephen Covey, particularly Habit 3: ‘Put First Things First’ from his renowned book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,’ the episode delves into the importance of weekly planning. Wright explains Covey’s analogy of viewing life through different lenses—wide angle, telephoto, and standard—to emphasize the need for balance and intention. Through weekly planning, individuals can align their tasks with their long-term goals and mission, prioritizing what truly matters over the urgent but less important distractions. The episode concludes with Dr. Covey’s advice on identifying key roles, setting ‘big rocks’ or essential goals, and scheduling these priorities to lead a principle-centered life.
01:06 Stephen Covey’s Three Lenses
01:59 The Power of Weekly Planning
02:52 Applying Weekly Planning in Today’s World
03:45 Dr. Stephen R. Covey on Perspective
06:30 Steps to Effective Weekly Planning
08:52 Real-World Example of Prioritizing
10:16 Conclusion: Organize Around Priorities
Thank you for joining us on this Journey to create your best life and to lead your Life and Teams. Please share this show, and we look forward to the journey we will take together.
The Franklin Planner Team
https://blog.franklinplanner.com/the-power-of-perspective-by-stephen-r-covey-on-weekly-planning/
In this episode of the Franklin Planner Podcast, host George Wright III explores the common struggle of feeling busy but unproductive. Drawing on the insights of Dr. Stephen Covey, particularly Habit 3: ‘Put First Things First’ from his renowned book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,’ the episode delves into the importance of weekly planning. Wright explains Covey’s analogy of viewing life through different lenses—wide angle, telephoto, and standard—to emphasize the need for balance and intention. Through weekly planning, individuals can align their tasks with their long-term goals and mission, prioritizing what truly matters over the urgent but less important distractions. The episode concludes with Dr. Covey’s advice on identifying key roles, setting ‘big rocks’ or essential goals, and scheduling these priorities to lead a principle-centered life.
Episode Timeline
01:06 Stephen Covey’s Three Lenses
01:59 The Power of Weekly Planning
02:52 Applying Weekly Planning in Today’s World
03:45 Dr. Stephen R. Covey on Perspective
06:30 Steps to Effective Weekly Planning
08:52 Real-World Example of Prioritizing
10:16 Conclusion: Organize Around Priorities
Thank you for joining us on this Journey to create your best life and to lead your Life and Teams. Please share this show, and we look forward to the journey we will take together.
The Franklin Planner Team
Episode Transcript
George Wright III: Welcome back to the Franklin Planner Podcast. My name’s George Wright III, I’ll be your host today.
A Simple Question
I wanna start today with a simple question: How many of us have reached the end of the week feeling busy but not productive? Maybe you know that feeling. We check off a lot of boxes, we’ve answered tons of email, maybe ran from meeting to meeting. Yet somehow the things that truly matter never made it onto our schedule. You know, Stephen Covey used to say that most people live their lives looking through a telephoto lens, focused on [00:01:00] what’s urgent and right in front of ‘em. And it’s no wonder we often feel stressed, rushed, and reactive.
Different Perspectives
Today we’re gonna take a little step back, because Dr. Covey taught that the key to effectiveness isn’t doing more; it’s seeing more clearly. And in one of his classic lessons, Dr. Covey compares three lenses through which we view life. The wide-angle lens allows us to see the big picture—kind of our mission, our purpose, and our long-term vision. The telephoto lens, it zooms in on the immediate—the deadlines, the phone calls, the fires that always seem to pop up. And then there’s also a standard lens, and that’s where true balance lives.
The power of a weekly perspective
That standard lens is the week. It’s long enough to see what matters, but short enough to act on it. It’s the rhythm of real life—workdays, evenings, and weekends all woven together in a pattern that can help us to align our priorities with our actions. And Dr. Covey [00:02:00] believed that weekly planning is the single most powerful practice for increasing both your balance and your productivity.
Put First Things First
So if you’ve studied The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you’ll recognize this as Habit 3: Put First Things First. It’s the bridge between Habit 2, which is Begin with the End in Mind, and actually living that vision day to day. Habit 3 reminds us that if we don’t plan our priorities, our priorities will be planned for us.
Weekly planning makes room for priorities
That’s where the weekly plan comes in. So just taking twenty or thirty quiet minutes before the week begins gives you a chance to look at your roles, all of your goals and your big rocks, and those few important things that once accomplished make everything else easier and unnecessary.
So now, let’s bring that idea into today’s world. We live in an era of constant notifications, never-ending to-do lists, just plain digital noise. [00:03:00] And it’s easy to slip into a reactive mode where every ping feels urgent. You know what I mean, with your phones and your notifications, but when you sit down each week with your Franklin Planner and define what matters most in each of your core and key roles—whether it’s a parent, a partner, a professional, a leader, or simply taking care of yourself—you’re choosing to lead your life with intention instead of being led by it.
Weekly planning keeps your values in mind
And that short weekly planning session reconnects you with your vision; it gives you structure to your priorities and helps you say no to the distractions that don’t align with your purpose. Think of it this way: your planner isn’t just a place to store appointments, it’s a lens that brings your life into focus.
So today we’re gonna hear directly from Dr. Stephen R. Covey in one of his timeless video lessons on time management and the 7 Habits. And in this classic segment, he explains the power of perspective and why weekly planning, [00:04:00] anchored in your most important roles and goals, is the foundation of living a principle-centered life.
So as you listen, think about your own big rocks. You know, what are the few essential things that deserve your best time and attention this week? And let’s go ahead and queue up Dr. Stephen R. Covey. Have a great day.
Weekly Planning: A Lesson from Dr. Stephen R. Covey
Stephen R. Covey: You are looking at this scene through what photographers call a wide-angle lens. They use this kind of lens to capture the big picture. Now you are looking through a telephoto lens, which is used to bring objects very close. Now you see me through a standard lens that gives you a normal human perspective.
The Telephoto Lens
Most people live as if they were looking at life through a telephoto lens. They live hour to hour, day to day, looking at their lives through the lens of what’s immediately in front of them, at what’s most pressing and urgent right now.
Urgent, but not important
[00:05:00] Imagine walking down a street while looking through a telephoto lens. We would focus only on the immediate threat or the passing impulse. We would live from crisis to crisis, dealing only with urgent things, mistaking them for the important things. The telephoto lens perspective would not allow us to focus on what’s truly important, on the big picture of our lives.
The big picture
The big picture is what’s ultimately important to us: Our life mission. Our organizational vision. Our long-term, Quadrant II priorities. But we can’t focus all the time on the big picture either. If we don’t translate our vision into action, we lose touch with reality. We become dreamers and end up neglecting the very details that enable our vision to come true. So how do we stay focused day to day, without losing sight of the big picture?
Weekly Planning: A Manageable Perspective
[00:06:00] The week is the normal lens that gives the most manageable perspective. You see, the week represents a complete patch in the fabric of life. There are work days, evenings, the weekend. It’s close enough to be highly relevant, but distant enough to provide context and perspective. I mean, what you can’t do in one day, you might be able to do in another. And over the course of a week, you can balance your life.
Three Steps to Weekly Planning
If you were to ask me what single practice would do more to balance your life and increase your productivity than any other, it would be this: plan your week, each week, before the week begins. Take twenty or thirty minutes alone in a quiet place to go through these three steps:
1. Record your roles
First, write down the important roles you play in your life. Roles represent [00:07:00] your key relationships, your areas of responsibility. You may have the roles of being a manager of new products, a friend, a community volunteer, a family member—and don’t forget yourself; you have an obligation to take care of yourself, to sharpen your own saw. Organizing your life around the many roles you play will help you maintain balance and focus on your key relationships, rather than focusing on tasks and things.
2. Choose your “big rocks”
Second, choose the big rocks. These are weekly, Quadrant II goals for each of your roles. Look back at the big picture, your mission statement, and your long-range goals, and select those big rocks that will have the greatest impact on your mission and goals. And for each role, [00:08:00] ask yourself the big rock question: What is the most important thing I could do in this role this week that would make the most positive difference?
For instance, it might be to complete the budget this week. It might be to help a child resolve a problem, or to attend a conference where you will learn new ideas you need for your job. You see, these big rocks will almost always be Quadrant II activities. In essence, you are creating your Quadrant II plan for the week so that your highest priorities don’t get pushed aside by the urgent.
3. Schedule your big rocks
Finally, schedule the big rocks. Block out time now in your calendar for those big rocks before the week fills up with other activities. Then schedule your other activities around the big rocks.
I once asked the managers of a struggling shopping center the big rock question: What one [00:09:00] thing could you do that you absolutely know would have a significant positive impact on your business? Their answer was unanimous and immediate: improve their deteriorating relationships with their tenants. They were the store owners in the shopping center! Then I asked them how much time they spent doing those kinds of things. It was less than 5 percent. Oh, they had all kinds of reasons. They had meetings to go to, reports to make out, email to answer. So you know what they did? They set up a goal to spend one third of each week activity helping store owners with their problems. After about a year and a half, the effect was dramatic and profound. The numbers went up and they had a waiting list for new tenants.
[00:10:00] This is the power of putting first things first every week. These Quadrant I and Quadrant III things that creep into your schedule won’t overpower the more significant Quadrant II things.
Time to Zoom In
Once you’ve scheduled your big rocks for each week, then each day you can zoom in and prioritize your daily tasks and appointments.
You see, with the right process and the right tools for weekly planning, literally, you can organize and execute every week of your life around your deepest Quadrant II priorities. You will spend your time on those things that matter most, never losing that big picture perspective that makes your life so rich and so meaningful.
References
Books & Authors
- Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Free Press, 1989.
Planning Tools & Resources
- Franklin Planner Official Website: https://www.franklinplanner.com
- Quadrant II Time Management: https://www.franklincovey.com/courses/the-7-habits/habit-3/
