Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash
Hello fam! How's life treating you?
I truly hope you are doing well. If not, here's a small dose of inspiration for you! 😁
If you liked my previous blog, you may enjoy this one too! 😊
What is the Eisenhower method really? 🤔
For those unfamiliar, the Eisenhower method (also referred to as the Eisenhower matrix or Eisenhower box) is a technique that allows you to organize and prioritize your tasks.
A little background history... 🤓
If you are curious to know where this method got its name from, you are in the right place. If you don't care about its history, you can continue to the next section.
This method was initially ideated by the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was the President of the US from 1953 to 1961. Before assuming the role of President, Eisenhower served as:
- a general in the US Army,
- Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II and
- first Supreme Commander of NATO.
As you can see, Eisenhower was a man involved in various important roles. These roles constantly required him to make important and swift decisions. And for that reason, he decided to put together a method for prioritizing tasks. This method is still used til this day.
Now, you may be thinking: "Cool, thanks for the unsolicited history class. But how does this work? And why should I, a mere mortal, even care?". Good thing you asked... Let us move on to the next point!
How does this Eisenhower method work? 👀
The Eisenhower matrix is made up of four quadrants, as illustrated below:
First of all, note that these quadrants are formed by analyzing the importance and the urgency of the task at hand. So, on the y-axis the importance of the task is measured and categorized as important or not important. Conversely, the x-axis is concerned with urgency and categorizes tasks by either urgent or not urgent. Easy, right?
Let us take a closer look at each quadrant, shall we?
Quadrant 1️⃣: Urgent & Important
This first quadrant is where your most urgent and important tasks will live. Examples of such tasks are:
- Putting out a fire
- Resolving a conflict within your team
- Fixing a critical bug in production
- Replying to that mail from your boss or team lead
Ideally, you should start your day by tackling tasks in this quadrant.
Quadrant 2️⃣: Not Urgent but Important
The second quadrant is where your non-urgent yet important tasks live. Examples of such tasks are:
- Checking your other emails
- Exercising
- Booking your worked hours
Quadrant 3️⃣: Urgent but Not Important
The third quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix is where urgent yet unimportant tasks will be located. These tasks should be delegated to others whenever possible. After all, these are the tasks that you risk putting off time and time again. You have been warned.
Quadrant 4️⃣: Neither Urgent, Nor Important
The last and fourth quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix is where your non-urgent and unimportant tasks reside. Tasks that fall under this quadrant are typically eliminated since they contribute little or nothing to your productivity or the goal you are pursuing. However, you could use this quadrant to add tasks that help you catch a break from work. You could put recreational activities here or small rewards that you want to give yourself for your hard work.
Tip 💡
I'll drop a tip to help you decide in which quadrant to place your tasks. Ready?
/* Now, ask yourself... 🤔
1) Is the task at hand urgent? true or false?
2) Is the task at hand important? true of false?
*/
let urgent = (yourAnswer);
let important = (yourAnswer);
if(urgent && important) {
console.log("Quadrant #1: DO IT NOW");
} else if (!urgent && important) {
console.log("Quadrant #2: SCHEDULE IT");
} else if (urgent && !important) {
console.log("Quadrant #3: DELEGATE IT");
} else {
console.log("Quadrant #4: DROP IT/DO LATER");
}
Final words 🙇🏻♀️
And there you have it! (Sounds familiar? No? Okay...) That should be about everything you need to know about the Eisenhower method/matrix/box. Let me know what you think in the comments below. 👇🏻 Have you tried it before? Will you try it? Why or why not?
Go on and crunch these tasks!
See you next time! Happy hacking! 👩🏻💻👨🏻💻
Sources
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Discussion (22)
Can indeed help a lot!
Reminds me of Stephen Covey - 7 Habits. I guess the writing of the 7 Habits was urgent & important so he copied it to be done with it? 🤣
OT: I always call it "Snowwhite and the 7 Hobbits" (besides that I'm a pretty normal guy 🤣)
That one's a classic! If listicles were books, that'd be one 😂😂
You forgot to mention the timeless quote from Eisenhower himself.
Nevertheless, great post! I never wrote about it because I thought of it being "off-topic" in tech lol.
Hahaha, shoot, I missed that one! That's my TIL for the day! 😂
Hehe, thanks for the kind words as always. 😁 Fun fact: my blogs on productivity are my most popular blog posts so far (most viewed, most liked). I also thought this was "off topic". Couldn't have been more wrong!
Wow like I used to write about that kind of stuff and then moved on to more technical writing. I thought that would be more helpful but now that you mention it... My dashboard also tells the same story. Looks like there's a lot of things my readers have been missing because I think it's "off-topic" 🤦♂️
Back to the drawing board you go! 😂 I'm still trying to find my way around blogging and the various topics I want to discuss. Ongoing experiment 🧪
Nice article 🤘
Thank you @leonardoscorza 😁
😁🤘
I enjoyed reading both blogs Amelia
Reading your blogs makes me want to start writing my own blogs. Fortunately, I can't think of anything to improve on right now more than my Time management and Productivity.
Who knows, maybe one day you'll read one of my blogs 😆 but nonetheless, I would say that was a great blog to read 🎉 💯
I look forward to the amazing stuff you blog about in the near future 🚀
Glad you enjoyed them! 😁
I'll be waiting 😎
Oh, yes please! Do keep you eyes peeled for more of my little blogs 😂
I don't think Eisenhower created this method, but it's still good to have his name for it.
Just one big question: How can anything be Urgent but Not Important ???
The only thing I can think of is going to the toilet.
Then who created it? 🤔
I'll have to think harder about this one 😂
Loved it Ameila
I'm happy you liked it @poudyal_rabin 😁
for productivity and creativity, the Getting Things Done method works pretty brilliant either. make writing your stuff down and organizing it properly a habit.
Sounds interesting 🤔 Might as well look into it. Thanks for sharing! 😁
Good stuff.
Let's see if this can help me GSD!😆
Amazing article, great job! 🚀
Glad you enjoyed it @metcoder95 ! 😊