It Never Rain But It Pours

When troubles come, they often seem to come all at once or at any rate, no sooner has one problem been dealt with then another appears.

As Shakespeare put it in Hamlet, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

I realised this saying probably isn't just superstition when I came across Stephen Covey's Habit 3 "First Thing First". Giving it some thoughts, troubles come in three could literally be true, say if you are struggling to deal with one thing, then usually trivial difficulties can actually, not apparently be felt like big ones.

To take an everyday example, say in the middle of a domestic crisis you are more likely to forget to pay an important bill than you normally would. Thus you soon find that you are dealing with several problems at once.

According to Stephen Covey, he explains that most of us are driven by the concept of urgency, whereas we really ought to reorganise the way we spend our time based on the concept of importance - not urgency.

1. Important and Urgent (crises, deadline-driven)
2. Important, Not Urgent (preparation, prevention, planning)
3. Urgent, Not Important (interruptions, many pressing matters)
4. Not Urgent, Not Important (trivia, time wasters)

So, step back a little, don't let any crisis fool you. First thing first.