Productivity methods
The Eisenhower matrix, urgent or important.
Sort your tasks into four boxes by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important? Then act on each box differently.
· 3 min read · 7 steps
- Named after
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Matrix popularised by
- Stephen R. Covey
- Shape
- Two questions, four boxes
- Best for
- Choosing priorities
What it is and where it began.
The Eisenhower matrix is a two-by-two grid for deciding what to do. One axis asks whether a task is urgent, the other whether it is important. Each of the four boxes gets its own action: do it, schedule it, hand it off, or drop it.
It is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower. In a 1954 speech he said: "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." He credited the line to a former college president [1]. Eisenhower did not draw a matrix himself.
The grid was made popular by Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), as a time management matrix of four quadrants. Covey argued that the important but not urgent quadrant, planning, prevention and relationships, gives the best return on time [2].
How to do it, step by step.
List your open tasks
Write down everything on your plate, or open your task list.
Ask if each task is important
Important means it moves your goals or responsibilities forward. Be strict: most things feel important when they are in front of you.
Ask if each task is urgent
Urgent means it has a real deadline soon, or something breaks if it waits.
Do the urgent and important tasks now
These are crises and close deadlines. Do them first.
Schedule the important, not urgent tasks
Give them a date and a time, so they get done before they turn into emergencies. This is the box Covey says to grow [2].
Delegate or limit the urgent, not important
Hand them to someone else, or keep them short. Many interruptions live here.
Drop the rest
Tasks that are neither urgent nor important can usually go. Park the ones you are not ready to delete.
Who it suits, and its limits.
It suits you if
- Everything feels urgent and you struggle to choose.
- You spend your days reacting and never get to the work that matters long term.
- You lead others and need to decide what to hand off.
Where it falls short
- Two yes-or-no questions are blunt: real work has degrees of urgency and importance.
- It does not say in what order to do the tasks inside a box.
- Delegating needs someone to delegate to; many people working alone have only three useful boxes.
Common mistakes to avoid.
Calling everything important
If most tasks land in the top boxes, raise the bar. Important should be the minority.
Confusing loud with urgent
A message marked urgent is not urgent because of the label. Ask what happens if it waits a day.
Never scheduling the important box
Sorting is only half of it. Without a date, important work stays where it is.
Sorting once and forgetting it
Urgency changes daily. Redo the sort, quickly, as part of planning your day or week.
How to do it in thisflow.
Each step uses a feature that is in the app today.
Use priorities as the boxes
Give tasks P1 to P4 with the keys 1 to 4, or type p1 in quick add. For example: P1 urgent and important, P2 important, P3 urgent but not important, P4 the rest.
A saved filter per box
Save a filter for P2 tasks without a date, and it shows in the sidebar with a live count: your schedule-next list.
Schedule the important work
Drag important tasks into the calendar so they get a time, not only a date.
Park instead of deleting
Not ready to drop a task? Someday parks it out of the way, and it is still there when you want it.
Questions and answers.
Did Eisenhower invent the Eisenhower matrix?
No. He described the difference between urgent and important problems in a 1954 speech, crediting a college president. The four-box grid was popularised later, most of all by Stephen Covey in 1989.
What is the difference between urgent and important?
Urgent is about time: it needs attention soon. Important is about value: it matters for your goals or responsibilities. A ringing phone is urgent; planning next quarter is important.
Which quadrant should I spend most time in?
Covey argued for the important but not urgent quadrant, because time spent there prevents many of the urgent problems later.
Can I use the matrix with priorities instead of a grid?
Yes. Many people map the four boxes to four priority levels in their task list, which keeps the matrix without a separate board.
Sources
Numbers in the text, like [1], point to these sources.
- [1]The American Presidency Project: Eisenhower's address to the World Council of Churches, Evanston, 19 August 1954www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-second-assembly-the-world-council-churches-evanston-illinois
- [2]FranklinCovey: Habit 3, Put First Things Firstwww.franklincovey.com/courses/the-7-habits/habit-3/
More methods to try.
Getting Things Done (GTD)
Capture everything, decide what each item needs, and review your lists every week.
Personal kanban
Put your work on a board, and limit how many things are in progress.
Eat the frog
Do your most important and least appealing task first thing.
Sort your tasks by what matters.
Free during the beta. Four priorities, saved filters and a calendar for the important work.