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Productivity methods and focus

Eisenhower matrix

A four-box grid that sorts tasks by two questions, whether each is urgent and whether it's important, to decide what to do now and what to plan.

What It Means

The Eisenhower matrix is a grid of four boxes built on two questions about each task: is it urgent, and is it important. In FranklinCovey's terms, an urgent task needs attention right away whether or not it matters to you, and an important one makes a positive difference in your work and life. Each task lands in one box, and the box suggests how to treat it. The grid is named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the four-quadrant layout most people use matches the Time Matrix in Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Try It: Put a Task in Its Quadrant

Tick what's true of the task, or tap an example, and see which quadrant it lands in.

Quadrant4
1. Urgent and important Necessity
2. Important, not urgent Extraordinary Productivity
3. Urgent, not important Distraction
4. Neither Waste

Unimportant email, calls and status posts. Drop what you can.

Quadrant names are FranklinCovey's.

How People Say It

  • "Is that urgent, or just loud?"
  • "That's a quadrant 2 thing, let's put it on the calendar."
  • "Half my inbox is quadrant 4."

The Breakdown

The four quadrants, with FranklinCovey's names

QuadrantWhat tends to land thereFranklinCovey's name
1. Urgent and importantCrises, pressing problems, last-minute deadlinesNecessity
2. Important, not urgentPlanning, prevention, learning, relationship building, recreationExtraordinary Productivity
3. Urgent, not importantNeedless interruptions, irrelevant meetings, other people's minor issuesDistraction
4. NeitherUnimportant email, calls and status postsWaste

How to use it

  1. Write down everything on your plate right now, big and small.
  2. For each task, ask two separate questions: does it need attention right away, and does it make a real difference to your work or life?
  3. Put each task in the box its answers point to.
  4. Deal with quadrant 1 first, since those are the fires.
  5. Give quadrant 2 tasks a set time on your calendar this week.
  6. Keep quadrant 3 as short as you can, and drop or trim quadrant 4.

Short version for today. Pick one quadrant 2 task you keep pushing back, like planning next month's budgetBudgetA plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it. See more, and give it 30 minutes before lunch.

Where It Comes From

The matrix takes its name from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In an August 19, 1954 address to the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Evanston, Illinois, he used the line "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important," adding that "the urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." A four-quadrant grid built on the same two questions appears as the Time Matrix under Habit 3, Put First Things First, in Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which FranklinCovey still teaches.

Good to Know

Nothing forces quadrant 2 onto your day, because no deadline is pushing it. FranklinCovey's advice centers on that box, and one of its course titles sums it up: "Act on the Important, Don't React to the Urgent." Urgent and important are separate questions, and a task that feels urgent because someone is waiting on it can still turn out to be quadrant 3.

FAQ

What are the four quadrants of the Eisenhower matrix?

Urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither. FranklinCovey calls them Necessity, Extraordinary Productivity, Distraction and Waste.

Did Eisenhower invent the Eisenhower matrix?

The name comes from a remark he made in a 1954 speech about urgent and important problems. The four-box Time Matrix itself is laid out in Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Which quadrant should I spend the most time in?

FranklinCovey points to quadrant 2, important work that isn't urgent, such as planning, prevention and learning. It says time spent there has a large positive effect on what you achieve at work and in life.

Do It in Buhata

Tasks

Give each quadrant 2 job a date in Buhata Tasks so it gets a real spot in your week.

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Related Terms and Categories

  • Eat the frog

    A time management rule from Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog!: do your biggest, most important task first thing in the morning, before easier work.

  • Getting Things Done

    David Allen's productivity system, from his book Getting Things Done, for capturing everything on your mind and deciding the next action on each item.

  • To-do list

    A written list of the tasks you plan to do, checked or crossed off as each one is finished.

  • Pareto principle

    The observation, also called the 80/20 rule, that a small share of causes produces most of the effect, such as a few tasks bringing most of the results.

Productivity methods and focus

Sources

The American Presidency Project, "Address at the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Evanston, Illinois" (1954); FranklinCovey, "Habit 3: Put First Things First"; FranklinCovey, "Choice 1: Act on the Important, Don't React to the Urgent"

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