Eisenhower Matrix – A tool to prioritize your works

‘Dwight D. Eisenhower who was the former president developed the concept called the Eisenhower Principle that addresses two kinds of problems “The urgent and The important” which emphasize that The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent. This principle helps him to organize his workload and priorities.

Imagine you are a project manager working on an important delivery and the client requests you to deliver the project within two days but you too have other urgent and important deliveries. So how you can prioritize things? This is where Eisenhower Principle helps you to deal with the most crucial tasks, and determine which are important and urgent.

In today’s fast-paced world it’s important to make an effective decision by prioritizing the tasks based on urgency and importance.

How to Use Eisenhower’s Principle

The matrix categorizes tasks into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance:

List down all the activities and projects you have to do including the tasks that take up your time at work, however unimportant. Based on the matrix put the task in one of four categories based on their importance and urgency,

1. Quadrant 1 (Do): The tasks in this category are important and urgent, which need your attention. These tasks may include deadlines, crises, and important meetings. When you have a task on your to-do list that must be completed now, add them to this category.
2. Quadrant 2 (Decide): The tasks in this category are important but do not require immediate attention. These tasks are important for your long-term goal in terms of personal and professional but they should be planned and scheduled to avoid them becoming urgent.
3. Quadrant 3 (Delegate): The tasks in this category are urgent but not important. These tasks need your immediate attention but they don’t contribute to your long-term goals. Therefore you can delegate these tasks to others which doesn’t require your interruption.
4. Quadrant 4 (Delete): The tasks in this category are neither urgent or important. These are time-wasters and distractions. For example, social media browsing, irrelevant emails, and certain low-priority tasks. You can simply erase it from your to-do because they drain your time. But these tasks are okay to complete when you have time.

So this principle improves your overall productivity and time management by focusing on what matters the most, lets give it a try to prioritize your activities.