How the Eisenhower Matrix is slowing you down
The Eisenhower Matrix is a prioritisation tool that is designed to help you organise your workload. It categorises work into one of four categories:
Urgent & Important
Do this work now
Urgent & Not Important
Schedule for later
Not Urgent & Important
Delegate
Not Urgent & Important
Don’t do
There are two major problems with this approach:
- Scheduling important work for later is another way of saying it will not get done, as new urgent work flies in to replace it. This means work that will drive you forward is not getting done.
- Delegating work makes sense on paper, but it is not always feasible. What if you do not have anyone to delegate to? What is to stop the person you delegate to, delegating to someone else and so on?
To further compound the issue, the word important is not well defined. Important to who? If everyone on your team is not aligned, they will each have different versions of what important is and the whole thing breaks down.
How to fix the Eisenhower Matrix
- Define what important means and ensure everyone is aligned. We recommend setting monthly goals and marking these as important - this way everyone can point to something concrete and say that is what is currently important.
- Put time aside each day (timeblock) for important tasks. Get them done early in the day so the little things that come up do not interrupt important work.
- If you can’t delegate, create a timeblock at the end of the day for quickly getting through low importance tasks. They are not important but need to get done, so set aside some time and get them done quickly.