There are many people who are always occupied with one task or another but still have minimal or zero results to show for it—and they don’t know why.
You may be in this category, or you just want to know ways through which you can be more effective in your career, business or academics.
As human beings, we have lots of activities calling for our attention. Some are important and necessary, some are not. Failure to rank our tasks and focus on the important things leave us frustrated, unproductive and even depressed.
One major way to become productive is using the Eisenhower Prioritization Matrix. It was developed by Stephen Covey, the author of the famous Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, from the speech of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States.
President Eisenhower said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
The Eisenhower Prioritization Matrix, as captioned in the featured image above is made up of two rows and two columns labeling four quadrants.
The first column is tagged “Urgent” while the second is “Less Urgent”. Also, the first row is tagged “Important” while the second is “Less Important”.
Now, the first quadrant (at the top-left corner) contains tasks that are urgent and important. It can also be referred to as “Do Now” or “Do First”. An example is to draft a proposal at work or do your homework that is due soon.
The second quadrant (at the top-right corner) contains tasks that are important but less urgent. It can be referred to as “Schedule”. You can schedule those tasks for later but with timestamps. These might include calling a client or friend.
The third quadrant (at the bottom-left) is to contain tasks that are urgent but less important. You are to delegate these tasks to someone who can handle them while you focus on the more important tasks. It’s called “Delegate”.
The last quadrant (at the bottom-right) contains activities or plans that are less important and less urgent, like scrolling through Facebook without any purposeful reason. This quadrant is also called “Delete” or “Eliminate”. You shouldn’t do these tasks. They are time wasters and a major reason you’re not producing your desired results.
There’s more to this than just drawing it up on your device or on paper. You have to commit yourself and be disciplined to do what you have ranked using the matrix. If you have to, be accountable to someone about your goals and hate to disappoint them.
You can do this and much more! It only takes discipline and help from the right people.
Reference link – https://asana.com/templates/eisenhower-matrix
