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A neverending cascade of tasks and to-do lists can make it feel impossible to stay motivated. You may have an inbox stuffed full of messages to respond to and a calendar of deadlines to meet. And some days, it may feel easier to hide under the blankets and stay in bed rather than deal with the firehose of responsibilities.
Feeling overwhelmed happens to everyone, but thankfully, there are organization apps and time-management techniques that help you spend your time on what matters. One of those is the Eisenhower Matrix, a method that prioritizes tasks based on their urgency and importance.
What is the Eisenhower Matrix?
The Eisenhower Matrix is a visual task management tool that helps you categorize tasks into four quadrants:
- Urgent and important
- Important and non-urgent
- Urgent and unimportant
- Non-urgent and unimportant
Also called the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, the Eisenhower Box, or the Urgent-Important Matrix, this decision-making tool was inspired by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and a World War II five-star general.
The matrix takes your typical to-do list up a notch. It asks you to map your tasks based on urgency and importance. This lets you concentrate on time-sensitive and necessary tasks, resulting in less time and energy wasted. In turn, you spend more time on rest, high-priority tasks, or personal development.
Why it works
Using the Eisenhower Matrix helps you build time management skills and learn how to be intentional in your decision-making. This leads to more satisfaction with the decisions you make. The matrix may also help you combat decision fatigue and feelings of overwhelm.
Additionally, the Eisenhower Matrix requires you to consider your short and long-term goals when prioritizing tasks. This reveals time-wasters that distract you from those goals.
Who should use it?
If you spend more time managing your to-do list than actually tackling it, the Eisenhower Matrix can help. It also helps you learn how to differentiate between urgent and important tasks. As they say, if everything is urgent, nothing is urgent.
The Eisenhower Matrix is just one of many time-management methods. If it doesn’t work for you, no sweat. Try a different productivity tip instead.
The FranklinCovey Time Matrix Vs. the Eisenhower Matrix
If you’ve heard of the FranklinCovey Time Management Matrix, you may find the Eisenhower Matrix familiar. Stephen Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” based his Covey Time Management Matrix on the Eisenhower Matrix.
The main difference is that the FranklinCovey Matrix focuses on tasks in quadrant two. The goal is to protect your time and energy from last-minute urgencies (as opposed to the impact-urgency focus of the Eisenhower Matrix).
The four quadrants of the Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix has four quadrants that categorize each task and assign an action to take:
Quadrant 1: Urgent and important tasks
Action: Do first
The first quadrant includes urgent tasks that need immediate attention. These tasks must be completed ASAP. Otherwise, you may face negative consequences. Shrugging them off can contribute to stress and, ultimately, burnout.
Some examples of “do first” tasks include the following:
- Responding to a critical email from a client or a manager
- Hosting a last-minute meeting to handle a crisis
- Taking your car to the shop to fix a flat tire
- Fixing a bug affecting a product or service
- Finishing your term paper before it’s due
Quadrant 2: Non-urgent but important tasks
Action: Schedule
Tasks in the second quadrant aren’t time-sensitive, but they’re important for reaching your long-term goals. Scheduling time for these tasks makes you more likely to accomplish them. Planning this way reduces the chances you’ll encounter distractions or forget them altogether.
These are some examples of tasks you should schedule:
- Taking out the trash
- Planning your monthly budget
- Attending regular coaching sessions
- Going to the gym three times a week
- Organizing your meeting notes into action items
Quadrant 3: Urgent but not important tasks
Action: Delegate
Tasks in the third quadrant require immediate attention but may not contribute to your long-term goals. They may not even require your skillset. Because these tasks are still urgent, it’s best to delegate them if you can.
What tasks can you delegate? Here are some examples:
- Tossing out old paperwork
- Cleaning specific rooms in your home
- Answering an unscheduled phone call
- Routine paperwork or administrative tasks
- Assisting with unexpected requests for help
How to delegate tasks without shame
Do you struggle to delegate tasks? You may feel shame or fear about burdening others. If so, you’re not alone. Plenty of people struggle with delegation. Deborah Grayson Riegel, a leadership communication professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, writes that common struggles involve not knowing what they can delegate or what tasks might be learning opportunities for others.
If you associate negative emotions with delegation, look inward first to address any misconceptions you have. Dr. Sharon Saline, a psychologist focused on ADHD and anxiety, lists these mindset shifts as necessary for becoming comfortable with delegation:
- Accept that it’s okay to not know how to do something
- Understand that learning happens through trial and error
- Acknowledge that perfection doesn’t exist
It may also help to consider how delegating tasks benefits your team. Delegating may open up an opportunity for a direct report to work toward their career goals.
Quadrant 4: Non-urgent and not important tasks
Action: Avoid
Activities that don’t contribute to your goals and don’t require immediate action belong in the fourth quadrant. These tasks are often distractions that throw off your focus, lead to procrastination, and waste your time.
Avoid these tasks or, better yet, delete them from your to-do list. If they’re not urgent and not important right now, they never will be.
These time-wasters may look like the following:
- Scrolling social media
- Unproductive meetings
- Engaging in excessive office gossip
- Shopping for things you don’t need
- Watching Netflix when it’s time to focus
How do you know what's urgent vs. important?
Eisenhower once said, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”
Using the Eisenhower Matrix helps us see the difference between these types of tasks more clearly.
An urgent task requires immediate attention. These tasks can be reactive, such as hopping on a phone call to resolve an issue for a client. Or they can be necessary to move toward a goal, such as finishing a paper to meet a deadline.
Urgent tasks also have negative consequences if you don’t tackle them immediately. Not calling your client could result in losing their business, while not finishing your paper before the deadline could result in a failing grade.
An important task aligns with your personal values and contributes to the completion of a goal. While they don’t require immediate action, dedicating time to them advances you toward important milestones and career growth.
For example, building an online portfolio can help you land a new job, and attending an online coaching session can help you build mental resilience.
Why we're bad at prioritizing
Prioritization doesn’t come naturally to everyone. People with ADHD and even trauma may struggle with executive function. Prioritizing their to-do lists as well as getting started and staying focused can be challenging. Feeling overwhelmed can also reduce our ability to prioritize effectively. We may simply choose the most effortless tasks to tick something off our list.
Some of us get easily distracted. If you’ve ever experienced shiny object syndrome, you understand how difficult it can be to stay on task. These challenges can lead to inefficient prioritization, but using a method like the Eisenhower Matrix can help you get back on track.
5 more tips for time mastery
1. Identify your time management style
Understanding how you prefer to manage your time can help you spot your strengths and weaknesses. Then, you can take action to address them. One of these common time management styles may look familiar:
- Big picture: This style involves getting a bird’s-eye view of your to-do list and then planning how to complete your tasks. Those in this category have a clear vision of the bigger picture and excel at creative problem-solving. However, they might overlook finer details.
- Cliffhanger: The cliffhanger time management style kicks it into high gear when deadlines loom. This style thrives in stressful situations but might be prone to rushed, low-quality work.
- Hyperfocus: Those with a hyperfocus style tend to get into a flow state and deeply focus on one task until it’s completed. They tend to exhibit meticulous attention to detail and produce high-quality work, which may result in missed deadlines.
- Hopper: If you know someone who hops from task to task without completing anything, they might be a hopper. Hoppers can easily transition between tasks and are prone to multitasking, leading to disorganization, missed deadlines, and high stress.
- Impulsive: The impulse time management style thrives without a plan. They may not even have a to-do list. This helps them improvise solutions and make quick decisions. However, they may also miss deadlines and have difficulty focusing.
- Perfectionist: Like the hyperfocus style, the perfectionist focuses on details and completes high-quality work. They tend to understand expectations deeply but struggle to let go of meaningless details and settle for “good enough.”
2. Avoid the multitasking trap
A lot of us love to multitask. But evidence says this habit of constant task-switching is bad for us. Studies have shown it’s less efficient than focusing on a single task and can even damage your executive function. On top of that, multitasking can sap your motivation and send your stress levels soaring.
Schedules, mindfulness, and finding a workplace with limited distractions can keep you from multitasking. Additionally, make sure you get enough rest and delegate tasks where you can.
3. Use time blocking to prioritize your calendar
Time blocking involves setting aside time for specific tasks. This designated time is a block, and you choose how much time is set aside for each block.
The beauty of time blocking is that it can prevent distractions by setting your work status to “busy” or “heads-down.” Additionally, you can use time blocking to make time for non-work tasks that fall into quadrant two. Some examples include exercising or taking a break for lunch with a friend.
4. Take time for breaks with the Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is another way to schedule breaks into your day. It typically involves 25 minutes of focused work time followed by a five-minute break. You can dedicate multiple focused work sessions to one task and then take a 15- to 30-minute break once it’s complete.
5. Experiment with different tools and methods
There’s no single right answer to managing your time effectively. We all have to find what works best for us. It may even be a combination of several different approaches.
The good news is you don’t have to figure it out on your own. A career or life coach can show you different time management tools while teaching you strategies to organize your life.
Focus on the right priorities with the Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix keeps your priorities and goals in front of you. While you may struggle to prioritize your tasks at first, the longer you use the matrix, the easier prioritization becomes.
If you need additional support understanding the nuances of your personal and professional goals, a BetterUp coach can help. Chat 1:1 with a certified expert coach and discover behavioral, science-based ways to achieve work-life balance, find your purpose, and reduce stress.
