Eisenhower Matrix for time management through prioritizing tasks strategically

The Eisenhower matrix is used to strategically prioritize and organize your tasks into 4 quadrants according to their relative levels of urgency and importance. The first broad step to using this matrix is to establish your core values, goals and context. In other words, this involves customizing the tool. From that basis, the next step involves analyzing and then categorizing tasks based on 2 criteria; their 1 - importance and 2 - urgency, within the context of the earlier step. Ultimately, each task should end up in one of the 4 quadrants: #1 - Do (for tasks that are urgent and important), #2 - Schedule (for tasks that are not urgent but important), #3 - Delegate (for tasks that are urgent but NOT important), and #4 - Delete (for tasks that are not urgent and not important).

Concepts: Continua of urgency & importance

Before you begin, determine how you define the concepts of 'urgency' and 'importance' within a certain context and time. These concepts exist on continua: "urgent" on one extreme and "not urgent" on the other and; "very important" to "not important". 

The context may be 

• Jane's personal life (for which her focus is to prioritize silos for her 'daughter Joy's education', 'household tasks', and 'personal care'). 

The 'time' relates to context-specific periods because situations within a context may change and require you to re-do the prioritizing process. Example(s)

• Jane may change her list daily 
• A marketing team may change their list quarterly
• A business may change its list yearly 

The urgency continuum simply refers to time sensitivity. A key objective for anyone using this process is to avoid having things get or stay in the 'Do' quadrant.

• If Jane's daughter's school examination season is near, Joy is likely to consider the 'education' silo as urgent. Conversely, during her child's vacation period, if her child does not need to use the free time to catch up academically, the same 'education' silo becomes 'not urgent'. 

The 'importance' of a task within the context of this process relates somewhat directly and narrowly to the current, higher-level core values and goals. To clarify, assigning the 'importance' of tasks in the matrix should not be confused with how you would do so in a more general context. Example(s)

• While Jane will agree that paying the rent is important to her life within a general context, she will not classify it as 'very important' here because her goal in life is to have a well-balanced life and be a good mother. (She might shift it to the urgent hemisphere of the matrix but never to the 'very important' hemisphere). To be clear, she recognizes that if she does not pay the rent, she will not have a well-balanced life and fail her daughter. However, since 'importance' in the context of the matrix regards tasks in terms of how they directly and more immediately impact her goal of a well-balanced life and being a good mother, paying bills, fixing the car are not 'very important' (even though they contribute indirectly to the fulfillment of 'important' tasks.) 

Example(s) of important tasks.

• As long as Jane's goals are a well-balanced life and good motherhood; important tasks may include helping her daughter with homework each night, spending quality time with her daughter, and self-care in whatever form that takes for her (like her health and social well-being).  

Understanding quadrants and placing tasks into them

When organizing your tasks, remember that a key objective of this exercise is to keep the quadrant #1 empty as much as possible. Arranging this matrix is not rigid. For instance, look for tasks or creatively introduce new ones that can make other items less problematic and shift them around accordingly (even though such an arrangement would not have made sense otherwise). Additionally, do not expect the matrix to be straightforward. For instance, you may encounter difficult situations in which you do not have the wherewithal to complete tasks that are both important and urgent. In such cases, the previous point about creativity applies. When circumstances become desperate and cause overwhelm, the next best thing may be to tackle 'lower priority' tasks first as a psychological way of coping. Needless to say, do everything within your powers to avoid such a situation. 

Sometimes, you may not have enough information to know if tasks you think could apply will become urgent. This is where it is best to apply the saying 'prepare for the worst and hope for the best.'

Quadrant #1 labeled 'DO' refers to the list of tasks that are both urgent and important. Consequently, you need to give them top priority. If I handwrite a list of tasks as they occur to me during the day, I subsequently assign a number (1, 2, 3, or 4) that corresponds with the appropriate quadrant.

Quadrant #2 labeled 'SCHEDULE' refers to the list of tasks that are important, but not urgent (at least, not yet). Ideally, you should spend most of your time in the 'schedule' quadrant because it is where you set a firm foundation for long-term opportunities that will give you the greatest satisfaction with your goals. Needless to say, by tackling this quadrant, you also prevent its tasks from getting into Quadrant #1. Because these tasks are not yet urgent, you can plan, research and do decision-making at a leisurely pace. 

Example(s)

• Jane plans a family vacation. This requires considerable planning, research and other preparatory steps (like organizing travel documents).
• In business; writing a well-thought out 
• business plan
• marketing strategy

Quadrant #3 labeled 'DELEGATE' refers to the list of tasks that are urgent but unimportant. I mentioned above those tasks that are unimportant within the context of the matrix but are important otherwise, like Jane's car maintenance (that indirectly helps her to achieve her bigger goals) or paying rent. When these 'unimportant' tasks become urgent, it is best to delegate them to others so that you can dedicate your unique skills and resources to personally tackle 'important' tasks. Jane is more likely to achieve her goals by choosing to spend time with her daughter than joining a line to pay utilities or learning to manage her own car mechanics.

Quadrant #4 labeled 'DISCARD' refers to the list of tasks that are both unimportant and not urgent. Consequently, you can discard them, at least for the current period. 

Example(s):

• Jane has to water her plants. Within her time context of 1 day, she discards this task today, especially if it is also the rainy season.  

CONTENT RELATED TO THE EISENHOWER MATRIX FOR TIME MANAGEMENT BY PRIORITIZING TASKS STRATEGICALLY

•