Eisenhower Matrix
Do you constantly feel overwhelmed by a never-ending to-do list?
Do you often ignore important goals to satisfy immediate but irrelevant activities?
Do you find it difficult to balance the urgent and important?
Don’t feel bad if you do. It is a common struggle and it’s a cause of angst and burnout for many of us.
To solve this problem we need to be able to differentiate the important from the urgent because “just fit more into your day” is no longer a viable solution.
Enter Eisenhower Matrix.
It is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, known for his exceptional productivity. Eisenhower famously said,
I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.
To address this distinction he devised his matrix.
It categorizes all tasks into four quadrants based on the dimensions of 'Urgent' and 'Important'.
Do Quadrant: Urgent and important tasks should be given immediate attention.
Schedule Quadrant: Important tasks that are not urgent should be scheduled for later completion.
Delegate Quadrant: Tasks that are urgent but not important. These should be delegated to others.
Delete Quadrant: Tasks that are neither urgent nor important. These should be eliminated or postponed indefinitely.
The goal of the Eisenhower Matrix is to help prioritize the important tasks, reduce time spent on less important ones, and ultimately increase your productivity and the value of your output.
I find that the “Delete” box is the most important box.
Think of it as a 'NOT TO DO' list.
By eliminating these tasks, you create the time necessary and dedicate it to what truly matters.
An anecdote about Warren Buffett and his pilot illustrates this idea well.
The story goes that Mike Flint, Buffett’s pilot, once asked him for advice on achieving career success. Buffett instructed Flint to list down his top 20 career goals. After making the list, Flint went back to Buffett who then instructed him to identify the top 3 from this list.
Flint now had two lists: the top three goals (List A) and the remaining 17 (List B). He assumed that with List A established, Buffett would next instruct him to prioritize List B.
Instead, Buffett advised, “Ignore those 17 items completely and focus solely on the 3.”
This anecdote illustrates how the Eisenhower Matrix can be used — specifically using the “Delete” quadrant to prioritize the “Do” quadrant.
Transitioning to a more productive mindset requires understanding the difference between urgency and importance. The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple framework that helps clarify this distinction. As John Maxwell said,
"Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives.
Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have."
The Eisenhower Matrix may perhaps be the best framework to do just that.