Prioritizing is never easy. One could go and plan to make a list of all the things to do on a piece of paper, yet still struggles to finish the job effectively. Any person would typically agree that it takes discipline and determination to fulfill the given tasks. However, one cannot perform the mentioned two things if there is no efficient organizing method.
Are you one of those people who find prioritizing difficult? Well, the good news is, there is the Eisenhower Matrix—a simple decision-making tool that can be used to promote time management, boost your productivity, and make the fiddly process of prioritizing easier than ever.
About the Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix is a type of technique solely designed to help a person in organizing tasks based on their urgency and importance. Illustrated through four quadrants, it is an effective tool to prioritize your most significant works and to maximize your productivity.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States and a five-star commander during WWII, proposed a concept that would later be born out as Eisenhower Matrix. In a 1954 speech, Eisenhower declared:
“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
The creator of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey, took Eisenhower’s comments and turned them into the now-famous Eisenhower Matrix task management tool.
How to Determine Between Urgent and Important Tasks
When hearing for the first time, one cannot deny that urgent and important may sound the same. However, when both terms are analyzed, they have a vast difference, although it is somewhat crucial.
Let’s define the terms “urgent” and “important” first:
Urgent
ur·gent | \ ˈər-jənt
: calling for immediate attention
Important
im·por·tant | \ im-ˈpȯr-tᵊnt
: marked by or indicative of significant worth or consequence;: valuable in content or relationship
(Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
When it comes to tasks, there is a fine line between the urgent and important things.
It is important to remember that not all urgent tasks are important. In fact, many urgent tasks can be postponed without any serious consequences. Conversely, it is important to remember that not all important tasks are urgent.
Urgent tasks are more focused on the allotted time that must be given in order to fulfill them. It needs a person’s instant attention. When a task is considered as urgent, it must be done neither tomorrow nor later, but now. In every project, individuals must know that there must be various consequences if urgent tasks are not taken seriously. They must be finished within a specific time or period to avoid possibilities of delay, stress from cramming, or burnout from not finishing them on time.
Examples of urgent tasks:
- Answering phone calls from clients
- Resolving a production issue that could result in a loss of revenue
- Entertaining a potential client
Important tasks, on the other hand, are recognized through their value or worth. It may not need instant attention, but these tasks may assist a person in achieving their long-term goals. The common misconception of other people here is, just because these tasks are not required to be done quickly doesn’t mean they are not significant. Though, in reality, the reason why important tasks don’t need to be fulfilled right away is because they need a longer period of time in order for a person to finish them.
Examples of important tasks:
- Developing a software
- Reading life-changing books
- Conducting long term planning
While these two things vary by their own definitions, tasks can still be labeled as both urgent and important. It just depends on the person’s perception of classifying the tasks according to their levels. Once you learn how to evaluate between urgent and significant chores, you can now start categorizing your jobs into the four quadrants of the Eisenhower Matrix.
The Four Quadrants of Eisenhower Matrix
Just by looking at that long, messy list of your tasks can be pretty much staggering. Every person can feel pretty much the same way. Sometimes, you’ll even find yourself asking questions like:
- “So, here they are. Where do I start?”
- “After I do this, what should I do next?”
- “How am I supposed to finish all of these?”
Those words sound familiar, right? Admit it or not, but most of us can relate to this. Good thing, the concept of Eisenhower Matrix exists. Its main goal is to take a look at these listed tasks, place each of them in the suitable category, and perform the tasks accordingly. By this process, the person can be able to schedule the said tasks and achieve the most significant ones, which is basically a pretty good way to prioritize.
Quadrant 1: Do
Quadrant One is the “Do” quadrant. This is the first box in the Eisenhower Matrix where you can put any tasks that are both urgent and important. In simple words, there are no excuses for these tasks when they are placed in this quadrant.
But how can we know if a task should be placed here? It’s simple. If it:
- Must be finished today or now.
- Has clear consequences if not done.
- May affect your long-term goals.
Quadrant 2: Schedule
Quadrant Two is the “schedule” quadrant. This is the part where you can put any kind of tasks that are not urgent but are still considered as important. Although they have an impact on your long-term goals, you can still plan for these tasks for later since they do not need to be completed immediately. In short, they are vital, but not the top priority.
Quadrant 3: Delegate
Quadrant Three is the “delegate” quadrant. Any tasks that are urgent but not important will be placed here. Well, these said tasks must be accomplished right now, but the reality is, they have little bearing on your long-term objectives. In other terms, they are urgent but not that important.
Quadrant 4: Delete
Quadrant Four is the “Eliminate It” quadrant. Whether we unintentionally leave them or not, you will still observe that there are remaining tasks after sorting your things and finishing the first three quadrants. These are called the “left-overs”. The left-over tasks are tasks that were not both urgent and important but still managed to make a space in your to-do lists, which can be deleted or removed to simply avoid further distractions in accomplishing your goals.
Practical Applications of the Four Quadrants
The use of something for a reasonable goal is known as practical application. By knowing the practical applications of the four quadrants, one can easily know where to place each of their tasks in the suitable and respective categories when using the Eisenhower Matrix.
So, let’s talk about these real-life situations that are applicable for each of the four quadrants.
Quadrant 1: Do
Real-Life Scenario #1: Handling customer complaints.
There are a few tasks that are both important and urgent. One of these is responding to customer complaints. Customers who have had a bad experience with your company will be more likely to complain than those who had a good experience. It’s important to respond to complaints as quickly as possible in order to show the customer that you care and that you’re taking the situation seriously.
Another important and urgent task is dealing with emergencies. If something goes wrong at your business, it’s crucial to address the issue right away. This could mean fixing a broken machine, addressing a security breach, or addressing a production issue.
The implications of failing to act promptly are readily apparent, which is why you would be urged to act immediately.
Quadrant 2: Schedule
Real-Life Scenario #2: Reading a self-development book.
Generally, reading something is not urgent, with the exception of learning how to provide first aid or finding up phone numbers to call. On the other hand, if you value or place a premium on self-development, reading literature on the subject will be beneficial for you.
However, unlike responding to customer complaints, avoiding reading has no immediate implications. If you do not read the book you intend to read, no one will be harmed and your business will not suffer immediately. On the other hand, failing to read these books will undoubtedly have an effect on your long-term goals, regardless of what they are.
Therefore, for important but non-urgent items, the best course of action is to schedule them. Additionally, you can employ time blocking to complete a critical task in order to avoid missing it.
Quadrant 3: Delegate
Real-Life Scenario #3: Uploading a blog post to your website.
While the word “uploading” can sound so simple, this process can be quite complicated. Maintaining a platform where you can or must upload with a dedicated schedule, commitment, and consistency isn’t easy.
However, if you’ll ask anyone, writing the contents on your blog post is more important than uploading it. The question is, why? It’s just simple. How can one be satisfied in reading your blog post if the words are not aligned with each other well? Some parts or sections are not included and you want to add more? These are just examples of instances that prove that writing the contents in a blog post is more important than uploading it.
Therefore, here’s the thing—uploading a blog post is deemed urgent since it has a specified or dedicated schedule that must be fulfilled solely for the readers or subscribers, but it is not as important as writing the contents of it. With this, you can ask for help by gathering ideas you’re your friend or the Internet or maybe, try hiring a writer. Simply saying, this uploading task can be placed in Quadrant 3.
Quadrant 4: Delete
Real-Life Scenario #4: Attending a meeting.
You have created your to-do lists and finished your tasks on time, but still, there are left-over tasks. One of them is about attending a meeting about the status of your team’s project. Since you already set the meeting on your phone’s calendar last week, you are reminded to attend the meeting, causing you to forget to disregard the said task in your to-do lists.
With this example, we can clearly see that this task can be placed in Quadrant 4, wherein the person can remove or delete the tasks since they are no longer both urgent or important. Doing this process keeps the record of your tasks clean and avoids further interferences from things that are not a priority. Sounds good, right?
5 Essential Tips for Prioritizing your Tasks
1. Set colors for each of your tasks
Having a “color-coding” system for tasks can make your work a lot easier. It can help you organize and classify each of the tasks according to their importance or deadline. Seeing them with their assigned colors helps you to see the most and least prioritized items.
If you’re using Trello, you may use a label to indicate the type of task you’re currently working on. If you use your calendar to time block, you can also color-code your tasks and schedules to assist you visualize their priority level.
2. Create simple to-do lists.
This is recommended to make a balanced pace between your home and work life. The Eisenhower Matrix can be used for your work-life since it is more systematic and organized. On the other hand, to-do lists can be used for your home life since it’s easier to understand.
3. Assign a number of tasks per quadrant
Still, it depends on you and your ability to accomplish your own tasks, but it is highly suggested that you must set a range of number of your tasks that you’re going to place in each quadrant to avoid the feeling overwhelmed and pressured before even starting the tasks.
4. Be creative in making reminders
Whether it’s buying an alarm clock, setting a ringtone, or pasting sticky notes on your wall, you have the freedom to unleash your creativity when it comes to reminding yourself about your tasks. Not only it can uplift your mood, it can also boost your productivity.
5. Be creative in making reminders
Determining which are the less urgent or important [or a mixture of both] things can help you to remove those unnecessary things before even performing such tasks. Not only you’ll save so much time—yes, time management, but also, you’ll save a lot of energy.
It is clear that time management is an important component of productivity. It can be a daunting task taking on multiple tasks at once. The Eisenhower matrix can help to identify the importance of each task and prioritize the list accordingly. The importance of the tasks may change over time, which will lead to an ever-changing priority system.
This matrix has helped me tremendously to prioritize my tasks which help me manage my time well. Know your priorities and schedule accordingly, and you’ll be able to get the most out of your time.