How To Prioritise Tasks With an Eisenhower Decision Matrix

It’s Monday morning, you arrive at the office all worked up with the usual rush hour traffic and tired from too much partying over the weekend ;-), and you are faced with a dozen fires that you need to put out. If you are the typical worker, you’ll start with the most immediate fire the minute you get to your desk. But that isn’t ideal. There’s a smarter way to determine priority, and it involves a tool invented more than 50 years ago by the 34th president of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

About Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1953 to 1961. During his time in office, he launched programs that directly led to the development of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, the launch of the internet (DARPA), the exploration of space (NASA), and the peaceful use of alternative energy sources (Atomic Energy Act).

Before becoming president, Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army, served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, and was responsible for planning and executing invasions of North Africa, France, and Germany.

Eisenhower had an incredible ability to sustain his productivity not just for weeks or months, but for decades. And for that reason, it is no surprise that his methods for time management, task management, and productivity have been studied by many people. His most famous productivity strategy is known as the Eisenhower Box aka Eisenhower Decision Matrix.

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

— Dwight Eisenhower

What is an Eisenhower Decision Matrix?

The tool is basically a way to chart all your to-do items onto four quadrants:

• important and urgent,
• important but not urgent,
• urgent but not important,
• not urgent and not important.

This method forces you to identify the most needed actions, and can therefore help you with time management. The idea is to spend your time on putting out the fires in quadrant 1 (important and urgent), and spending any remaining time improving yourself in quadrant 2 (important but not urgent). Everything else can be delegated or deferred.

The reason I like the Eisenhower Method is that it provides a clear framework for making the decisions over and over again. The only ask is that we need to be consistent.