↓Skip to main content

Deciding What's Important

3 mins
How I prioritize.

There are moments in my life where I have difficulty prioritizing my time. I have found the Eisenhower matrix to be a very useful tool to bucket all my to-do tasks into more workable sub groups. I wanted to share the matrix and how I use it.

The Eisenhower Prioritization Matrix #

Quick history: Dwight Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States and was known for his impeccable time management. He was at one time a general, NATO commander, and president of Columbia University. 😃

His matrix has four parts to it:

  1. Urgent and important. (Do)
  2. Important, but not urgent. (Schedule)
  3. Urgent, but not important. (Delegate)
  4. Not important and not urgent. (Delete)

Eisenhower is quoted as saying, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

How to Differentiate Between Urgent and Important? #

Urgent tasks require attention as they are time-sensitive. These tasks can include anything from returning your doctor’s phone call to finalizing a PowerPoint for your boss the day before it’s presented.

Urgent tasks are the ones that tend to stress us out as we’re under pressure to complete them. As a result, we often rush through them or fail to adequately think through them. ❗

Important tasks are the things we want to get done as they help move us towards key goals and targets. These often require our undivided attention and should be what we spend the best hours of our days working on.

Now, most of us default to working on tasks that are both urgent and important. But when all of your time goes to tackling the fires of today, we stoke the fires of tomorrow as a result.

How I Prioritize #

I use Notion to track all my to-do tasks and it’s where I bucket them into these four groupings: Do, Schedule, Delegate, and Delete.

I try to remove all the delete tasks, aka unimportant and non-urgent tasks. I do save them so if I find spare time, I can revisit. But more often than not, these are distractions.

I block off my calendar for the Schedule tasks, aka important and non-urgent. The idea here is I set concrete time aside in my day, usually an hour, to spend on the task. I block off time on my calendar to ensure I can focus and not have others bother me.

. / Sometimes I schedule Do tasks, aka important and urgent tasks, on my calendar but I’m typically aware of them and know the in and outs of my calendar for the forseeable couple of days.

How I Split my Day to Complete Tasks ✔️ #

I like to split my day into three parts:

  1. Morning
  2. After Lunch
  3. Late Afternoon

My mind is most fresh and ready to tackle tasks in the morning, so I try to work on the Do and Schedule tasks then. My after lunch period, is usually dedicated to Delegated tasks. I like to have meetings during this time - they don’t require as much brain power and I’m still strong to chew more if needed. I also try to set time up with my team around this time to provide guidance, if needed.

The afternoon is where I struggle the most, the dreaded 2pm slump. Coffee at this moment is crucial for me. After which I try to sort through the Delete tasks or non-critical items. Before I close shop for the day, I update Notion with my accomplishments for the day, add new tasks received, and re-prioritize if needed. I find some self reflection at this time to be a good way to decompress and prepare for a new day. 💭