Putting first things first means organizing and executing around your most important priorities it is living and being driven by the principles you value most not by the agendas and forces surrounding you dr stephen r covey. In first things first stephen m r covey advocates categorizing tasks by urgency and importance so that you can focus on what actually needs to be done in the limited amount of time that you have using personal examples and insight from years of business experience he argues for a new way of looking at your to do list. In first things first stephen m r covey advocates categorizing tasks by urgency and importance so that you can focus on what actually needs to be done in the limited amount of time that you have using personal examples and insight from years of business experience he argues for a new way of looking at your to do list. Franklin covey on brilliance audio presents first things first understand why so often our first things arent first by stephen r covey a roger merrill