With only so many hours in a work week, let alone a work day, and a never ending list of tasks to complete, maintaining productivity can be a challenge. Ideally, we would want to get tasks done as soon as we receive them but what if I told you that you can increase your productivity even if you don’t complete all your tasks at once? Let me introduce you to the Eisenhower Matrix, a graph tool used to prioritize tasks that can help you focus on the tasks that really matter first.
What is the Eisenhower Matrix?
The Eisenhower Matrix is a task prioritization graph tool that is said to be inspired by a quote attributed to the 34th US President, General Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969). “Most things which are urgent are not important, and most things which are important are not urgent.” This sets the base for the axes on the Eisenhower Matrix graph, one axe measuring “importance” (not important or important) and the other, “urgency” (not urgent or urgent).This divides up the matrix graph into a grid with 4 quadrants that contain 4 key corresponding actions to take based on your evaluation of the tasks importance and urgency.
How do you use the Eisenhower Matrix on your tasks?
As you start adding tasks to your to-list, take a moment at the beginning to classify each task according to the quadrants it fits under. This will help you to quickly decide what your next steps are and how much time you have to work on each one. Next, we will breakdown each of the four quadrants and look at how each can be applied to effectively get through your tasks based on their importance and urgency.
1. Delete: Not Important and Not Urgent
Tasks that are evaluated as not important and not urgent can be eliminated. A task may be considered not urgent if there is no set deadline by when it is needed. Similarly, a task may be considered not important if it doesn’t carry any consequences if it is not completed. For example, in my job role, whenever I get external emails asking to meet with me to promote me a non-job related product, I delete the email because it is not important to my work and definitely not urgent because its a sales attempt that does not need my attention.
2. Do Later: Important and Not Urgent
Tasks that are evaluated as important but not urgent can be done later so you are able to schedule them to be completed at another time, while staying ahead of its deadline. Tasks would be considered important if they may help you get closer to your job goals. And if you have plenty of time to get it done, then it’s not urgent. By scheduling for a later date, you can free up time now to work on something that is urgent and important. For example, whenever we’re piloting new processes or activities, we don't have a set deadline for these which allows us to really develop them work through them and give them the attention they need without hurriedly trying to complete them.
3. Delegate: Urgent and Not Important
Tasks that are evaluated as urgent but not important should be delegated appropriately. A task would be considered urgent here if it needs to be completed but would not be important to you as you don’t have the specific skill set within your job role to support the completion of the task. For example, whenever I get emails asking for help with a task outside of my job scope, I try to redirect the email to the indicate person who can support with the task.
4. Do First: Important and Urgent
Tasks that are evaluated as both important and urgent should be completed now. They take precedence over the tasks in the other 3 quadrants. In this quadrant, tasks fall within your specific job skillset, are important towards your job goals, and have a deadline or consequence if not completed as soon as possible. These are the tasks that will stress you out the most.
Avoid 3 common mistakes made with the Eisenhower Matrix
To effectively use the Eisenhower matrix, you will want to avoid the following 3 common mistakes.
#1. Not regularly reassessing and updating task priorities. Reassessing your tasks routinely to update your tasks categorization can help you avoid having too many urgent and important tasks on your plate at one time. Especially as job priorities can change from time to time.
#2. Confusing urgency with importance. While important tasks require your skillset and increase attention, it’s essential to understand that it does not automatically make them urgent if there is no deadlines or consequences. Ideally, we would want to get to all tasks that require us to do our job but not all are urgent. This distinction can help us alleviate some of the pressure of having outstanding tasks that are not urgent.
#3. Neglecting non-urgent but important tasks. On the other hand, if a task does not have a clear set deadline but requires your skillset, it is essential that we don’t procrastinate on it. Make sure to honor the scheduled time to do it later so that you can still get it completed.
Why should you use the Eisenhower Matrix for task prioritization?
Now that we know what and how to use the Eisenhower Matrix, there’s a few benefits that are worth noting as to why you should consider using it for task prioritization. First, it will provide you with an increase clarity and focus on priorities so you are able to clearly see how much time you have to do a task (do now vs later) and afford to not do (delegate to someone else or delete the request). Secondly, you can reduce procrastination and time-wasting activities because you are being intentional with the time you spend on the tasks that are truly important and urgent. Thirdly, you will have enhanced productivity and efficiency because you are able to strategically make the most of your resources including your time.
Overall,
When we apply the Eisenhower Matrix towards effective task prioritization, we are able to productively use our limited time and energy to get the work we need most done, done. Let me know in the comments if you have tried this method or if you have another common mistakes we should avoid when using the Eisenhower Matrix.
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