The Eisenhower Decision Matrix

Today's blog post is based on an article from The Art of Manliness.

If you've read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", then you're familiar with the matrix (unfortunately, I can't seem to upload the diagram). The diagram is divided into quadrants, labeled Urgent/Important in Quadrant 1 (upper left), Not Urgent/Important in Quadrant 2 (upper right), Urgent/Not Important in Quadrant 3 (lower left), and Not Urgent/Not Important in Quadrant 4 (lower right).

Here's what's meant by the terms urgent and important:

Urgent means that a task requires immediate attention. These are the to-do’s that shout “Now!” Urgent tasks put us in a reactive mode, one marked by a defensive, negative, hurried, and narrowly-focused mindset. 

Important tasks are things that contribute to our long-term mission, values, and goals. Sometimes important tasks are also urgent, but typically they’re not. When we focus on important activities we operate in a responsive mode, which helps us remain calm, rational, and open to new opportunities.

We tend to believe that all urgent activities are always important but that's seldom actually the case, and it's made worse by today's technology:

Modern technologies (24-hour news, Twitter, Facebook, text messaging) that constantly bombard us with information have only heightened this deeply engrained mindset. Our stimulus-producing tech treats all information as equally urgent and pressing. Miley Cyrus’ Twerk-gate is given the same weight as important D.C. policy discussions.

Here are descriptions of the various quadrants:

Quadrant 1 tasks are both urgent and important. They’re tasks that require our immediate attention and also work towards fulfilling our long-term goals and missions in life. 

Quadrant 1 tasks typically consist of crises, problems, or deadlines.

Quadrant 2 tasks are the activities that don’t have a pressing deadline, but nonetheless help you achieve your important personal, school, and work goals as well as help you fulfill your overall mission as a man. 

Q2 tasks are typically centered around strengthening relationships, planning for the future, and improving yourself.

Quadrant 3 tasks are activities that require our attention now (urgent), but don’t help us achieve our goals or fulfill our mission (not important). Most Q3 tasks are interruptions from other people and often involve helping them meet their own goals and fulfill their own priorities.

Quadrant 4 activities aren’t urgent and aren’t important. They’re what I like to call “dicking around” activities. Q4 activities aren’t pressing nor do they help you achieve long-term goals or fulfill your mission as a man. They’re primarily distractions.

There's a lot more information on each quadrant in the article, as well as examples of activities that fall into each quadrant.

Another diagram that I found (and also can't upload) gives a descriptive word to each quadrant:

1. Do
2. Plan
3. Delegate
4. Eliminate

The quadrant 2 activities are the activities that you put in your calendar mapping, while quadrant 3 activities are the kinds of things that you might assign to a virtual assistant.

Here are a couple of tools to help you out:

To help you apply the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, we suggest checking out the following tools.

Eisenhower App. This is an iPhone app that allows you to easily organize your task according to the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. I had a chance to play around with it a bit and liked what I saw. Haven’t been able to find anything similar for Android. 

Download the Eisenhower Decision Matrix Worksheet. I created a snazzy little PDF of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix available to download for free. Print one out tonight and set aside 30 minutes for personal reflection. Make a list of the tasks you spend most of your time on and assign them to an appropriate quadrant in the matrix. Doing so will give you a rough idea of whether you’re spending time on activities that are actually important.

After you do that, think of ways you can reduce the amount of time you spend on Q1, Q3, and Q4 tasks and increase the amount of time you spend on Q2 activities.

I downloaded the app plus I downloaded a similar one (this one's for iOS also)...I'm going to check them both out.

Interesting days

Today - Best Friends Day, World Oceans Day and Upsy Daisy Day

Tomorrow - Rosé Day, Donald Duck Day and Call Your Doctor Day

Week long celebrations:

Jun 8 - Jun 14: Love your Burial Ground Week

Next Monday - Nature Photography Day, Beer Day Britain, Lobster Day, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, Magna Carta Day and Smile Power Day

July 8 - Math 2.0 Day, Chocolate with Almonds Day and Scud Day

Week long celebrations:

Jul 6 - Jul 12: Great British Pea Week