Better Decisions with the Eisenhower Matrix

We are terrible at choosing which task to give our full attention to.

A lot of people think they’re good at multitasking, but research shows that this just isn’t true! In reality, the human brain only pays complete focus on one thing at once.

Today I’m going to introduce you to the Eisenhower Matrix, which helps me get shit done when I feel a little overwhelmed.

The Eisenhower Matrix is an elementary matrix because it’s made up of only four quadrants.

We focus on just two things, importance and urgency.

Just below, you can see an example of the Eisenhower Matrix. 👇

We all have things that seem urgent but are not important. 

For every activity or task, ask yourself two things: 

Once you answer these things, each task or activity will naturally fall into a segment in the matrix.

Once it falls into each segment, you will easily be able to justify the course of action. 

This is what you need to make sure you get done today (or tomorrow at the latest) if nothing else. 

These things will affect you long term. If you have time in the day after you have tackled  “Urgent + Important”, you can get to these or, if it is immediately in your schedule JFDI. 

If you have never delegated, this can be hard, and this is where sites like Fiverr and Upwork will help you get started. 

And if you are fortunate enough to have a profitable business hire someone to help you with these things. Your work can be more impactful elsewhere. Once you get someone started here, you’ll see how many things can make it into this segment. 😉

Just don’t do this stuff. It might be scary at first, but you are busy! Start saying no to this stuff. You can’t do everything! 

Don’t use the same matrix for your personal and business life; that usually leads to people neglecting the most critical thing - living their lives. 

You can download a free pdf template here to print off or use on your tablet to help you prioritise. 🚀

The Eisenhower Matrix is named after the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower; in a 1954 speech, Eisenhower quoted an unnamed university president who said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” In his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey repackaged Eisenhower’s insights into a simple tool to prioritise tasks, now known as the Eisenhower Matrix.

Blush — Illustrate your ideas! 

Easily create and customize stunning illustrations with collections made by artists across the globe.

That’s all for this week, stay awesome, and I’ll chat with you next week, my beautiful friends! 👋