Inspired by this ... The Eisenhower Matrix

You’ve got a lot on your plate. In addition to your actual projects, it feels like you also have 50 other little tasks that demand your attention. There are a ton of unanswered emails in your inbox. A coworker on another project desperately needs your input on something, and they’re on a deadline. Not to mention that overflowing laundry bin waiting for you at home.

With all of these priorities whizzing around your brain simultaneously, it’s hard to actually tackle any of them. The anxiety of not knowing where to start is leaving you in a state of analysis paralysis. You feel overwhelmed, and stuck.

But it’s not all bad news. Solutions for prioritization and decision-making are not new. In fact, one of the greatest frameworks for thinking about decision-making came over a half a century ago, from old school productivity master and very busy fellow Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States.

The Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix is an easy way to figure out how to prioritize your tasks so that the most important don’t fall by the wayside to the sudden, unexpected, and urgent ones.

The idea is that all of your tasks can be sorted into four quadrants, with axes of Important and Urgent on either side. These four quadrants are given number values of 1 through 4 based on their priority.

Eisenhower Matrix Task BoxImage credit: Jamesclear.com

Tasks that are both “Important” and “Urgent” receive a priority level of 1, and should be your focus. On the other end of the spectrum, tasks that are deemed both “Not Important” and “Not Urgent” should be put to the wayside. In the middle are tasks that can either be scheduled for next up, or even delegated to someone else.

The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple framework that helps you break out of that pernicious analysis paralysis which occurs every time you “feel like you don’t even know where to start.” By assigning each task to a quadrant, it is easy to understand what actually requires your attention this very second.


Read more on the original article... by Lauren Moon