Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta
Eisenhower’s Priority Matrix is named after it’s founder Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. Before becoming President, Eisenhower served as a general in the United States Army and as the Allied Forces Supreme Commander during World War II.
During this time Eisenhower had to make tough decisions about what tasks he should focus on each day. This led him to invent the world-famous Eisenhower Matrix, which today helps us prioritise by urgency and importance.
More recently this matrix has become popularly known as ‘Covey’s Time Management Matrix’, named after Steven Covey who introduced us to the matrix in his wildly successful bestselling book ‘The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People’ which was first published in 1989.
Whether you call it ‘Eisenhower’s Matrix’ or ‘Covey’s Time Management Matrix’ – the ‘Priority Matrix’ is a highly effective and powerful tool for utilising your time wisely and focusing on what really matters in business & life.
It is widely known that focusing on our priorities can help us reach our goals while also ensuring we don’t become overwhelmed, stressed & burned out along the way.
Many studies have been carried out on the detrimental effects of stress & burnout on the human body and going by these studies stress should be avoided at all costs.
If we add all of our tasks into the Priority Matrix, it looks something like the below which is cluttered and can be overwhelming. Knowing where to focus our energy and time will help us declutter our tasks, feel less overwhelmed and focus on our top priorities.
Here is how the ‘Priority Matrix’ works.
The matrix is divided into 4 quadrants determined by varying degrees of urgency and importance.
Only one of these quadrants will move us closer to our goals.
Only one quadrant will PRIORITISE OUR PROGRESS.
1. Important and Urgent
These are tasks that require immediate attention, they must be done asap.
These can be deadlines, crises, problems that need immediate solutions, emergencies, last minute tasks.
Only tasks that require your immediate attention should go into this quadrant.
Care is required to ensure you do not spend all of time in this quadrant as this quadrant is basically FIRE FIGHTING.
You will be VERY BUSY in this quadrant but you will be making LITTLE TO NO PROGRESS towards your goals!
This quadrant does not prioritise YOUR progress towards YOUR goals. 
2. Important and Not Urgent
These are long term tasks that contribute to your business & personal strategy.
These tasks move you closer to YOUR GOALS.
They are not urgent tasks but must be planned and scheduled to run the business or live the life you want for yourself.
These are strategy planning, strategy review, goal setting, continuous Improvement, problem solving, learning and personal development.
This is the most important quadrant and you should be spending AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE here.
THE MORE TIME YOU SPEND HERE, the more PRODUCTIVE, SUCCESSFUL & HAPPY you will be.
This quadrant prioritises YOUR progress towards YOUR goals.
3. Not Important and Urgent
These are tasks that deliver VERY LITTLE VALUE in terms of your goals.
These are interruptions, problems that do not belong to you, non-relevant phone calls/meetings/e-mails.
The best thing to do with these tasks is to either delegate or decline them.
They may need to get done, but don’t necessarily need to get done by you.
In this case delegate asap.
If you can’t delegate, it’s also ok to decline and say no to these time wasting activities.
It’s best to spend as LITTLE TIME AS POSSIBLE here.
This quadrant does not prioritise YOUR progress towards YOUR goals.
4. Not Important and Not Urgent
These are tasks that deliver NO VALUE AT ALL in terms of your goals but can be enjoyable and used for entertainment and relaxation purposes.
These are watching tv, scrolling social media, video games, surfing the net, needless phone calls/meetings/e-mails.
Watching tv, scrolling social media, video games and surfing the net can be very enjoyable and they are wonderful ways to relax but they are entertainment – unless you work for Netflix etc!
It’s a matter of balancing these enjoyable, entertaining activities with time spent in quadrant 2!
This quadrant does not prioritise YOUR progress towards YOUR goals.
That’s it, the Priority Matrix is a pretty simple tool yet incredibly effective and powerful.
- What quadrant do you spend most of your time in?
- Where would you like to spend more time?
- Where would you like to spend less time?
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Siobhain
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