How to Use an Eisenhower Matrix to Prioritize Tasks

The Eisenhower matrix is a method of task management that goes beyond a to-do list to help you prioritize your important and time-sensitive tasks and delegate or eliminate your less urgent ones. When hand-drawn, it looks like a box with four quadrants, with each quadrant representing the urgency or importance of a particular task.

The Eisenhower matrix gets its name from Dwight D. Eisenhower, who made many tough decisions throughout his long career in public service as the thirty-fourth president of the United States, a five-star general in the United States Army, a supreme commander of the Allied forces during World War II, and the supreme commander of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

One of the guiding principles of the Eisenhower method is a statement Eisenhower made in a speech in the 1950s: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” The former president was quoting Northwestern University President J. Roscoe Miller.

Stephen Covey—author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a book about productivity and time management—took inspiration from Eisenhower’s statement to create the Eisenhower matrix, also known as the Eisenhower box, Eisenhower decision matrix, and Eisenhower principle. With the goal of creating a prioritization framework, Covey created a template (a square with four quadrants) that could serve as a way of prioritizing important tasks and eliminating time wasters and procrastination.

There are variations on the Eisenhower matrix, but it’s generally a box with four quadrants—the idea is to sort tasks into the appropriate quadrant depending on the item’s levels of importance and urgency. To make an Eisenhower matrix, draw a large square on a piece of paper and divide it into four equal parts. The top row of quadrants is “important” and the bottom row of quadrants is “not important.” Then the left column of quadrants is “urgent” and the right column of quadrants is “not urgent.” The resulting combinations will be:

1. 1. Do (important, urgent): The top-left quadrant, or first quadrant, is for tasks that are important and urgent and require your immediate attention. Same-day tasks belong in this quadrant so that you do them now, rather than later.
2. 2. Decide (important, not urgent): Use the top-right quadrant, or second quadrant, for tasks that you can schedule to complete at a time in the future. These tasks might correlate to your long-term goals. Some people call this quadrant “Schedule” instead of “Decide.”
3. 3. Delegate (not important, urgent): The bottom-left quadrant, or third quadrant, is for tasks that you do not need to personally do or oversee—delegating these tasks to other people should be your strategy.
4. 4. Delete (not important, not urgent): The bottom-right quadrant, or fourth quadrant, contains tasks that you can remove from your prioritization matrix to free up your resources for other matters. Some people call this quadrant “Eliminate” instead of “Delete.”

Effectively using the Eisenhower matrix requires you to sort tasks into quadrants based on their importance and urgency. You can do this every day or weekly. Once you have accumulated your action items, follow these steps to put this method of organization into practice:

• Assess your matrix regularly. You can do this every day or weekly, but you should establish a cadence for deciding what belongs in the matrix. Set aside a few minutes for adding items, removing items, and noting progress.
• Cap the number of items in each quadrant. You can make a list of tasks and then categorize them accordingly, or you can write or type your to-do items directly into the matrix, but it can be wise to limit yourself to just five to eight things per quadrant so that you can keep your focus on execution rather than planning.
• Remain organized. Keep your Eisenhower matrix in a place you can return to it often, such as a notebook or a piece of paper taped to your desk. This will prevent you from losing a valuable amount of time while you search for it. However, keep in mind you should resist the urge to overmanage yourself.

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