As I  sit down at my desk to start my work for the day ,I’m looking over the list of tasks I need to get done –

·         Finish editing article.

·         Clean up room.

·         Finish reading research paper.

And so on.

 

All of a sudden, I have 10 different things to do that are urgent or important or both and I don’t know where to begin.

 

This where the Eisenhower matrix comes into the picture.Eishenhower was the 34th President of the United States and is often applauded for his consistent productivity – that allowed him to plan and act on many projects.

The method was named after him and is used to prioritize tasks between urgency and importance.

Because what is urgent ( replying to emails) may not be important( writing the manuscript for your book) and vice versa.

In this box there are 4 quadrants.

Quadrant 1 :

·         Urgent and important

·         These are tasks that you must put on your list first – and do immediately.

 

Quadrant 2

·         Important but not urgent

·         Tasks that need to get done – but not right away. So, schedule them for later during the day.

Quadrant 3 :

·         Urgent but not important

·         These are tasks that are urgent but don’t require your immediate attention as they are not important. The idea is to delegate them to someone else.

Quadrant 4 :

·         Tasks that are neither urgent nor important.

·         Delete these tasks. Or put them under a task list for “ someday”. So, you can come back to these tasks on a day you have time.

And that’s all there is to it.Start jotting down tasks in each of these boxes and you’re set.