Eisenhower Matrix: Prioritize goals and tasks

The Eisenhower Matrix is a method for prioritizing tasks and goals in terms of time management, work organization and self-organization. It visualizes a classification of tasks and goals according to importance and urgency into the four categories

• "important, not urgent",
• "important, urgent"
• "not important, not urgent" and
• "urgent, not important."

Based on this visualization in four quadrants, specific recommendations for action can be derived.

The Eisenhower Principle is named after the 34th President of the USA, Dwight D. Eisenhower. A quote by the former college president of Northwestern University, Dr. J. Roscoe Miller, which Eisenhower presented during a speech, stands as programmatic for the Eisenhower method:

The Eisenhower method is therefore also called "Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle".  Besides the name "Eisenhower Matrix", the method is also dubbed "Eisenhower Method", "Eisenhower Principle", "Eisenhower Box", "Eisenhower Model" or "Eisenhower Diagram".

Incidentally, there is no evidence that Dwight D. Eisenhower himself systematically applied this principle to prioritize his tasks.

The Eisenhower method a tool to increase effectiveness, that is, to do the right and important things first, but not to increase efficiency (Do the tasks in the right way).

To do this, evaluate all pending tasks/pending items in terms of their importance and urgency and sort them accordingly. To do this, proceed systematically and first create a list of all pending tasks. Now look at each individual task and assess it according to two aspects:

1. How important is it to complete the task? Could another person also do the task?
2. How urgent is it to complete the task? What happens if I don't do the task until later?

This results in four possible categories into which a task can fall.

• Category A: important and urgent
• Category B: important, but not urgent
• Category C: urgent but not important
• Category D: not important and not urgent

So when sorting and visualizing the tasks in the Eisenhower matrix, do an ABCD analysis - another synonym for the Eisenhower method. Every important task is usually directly related to a defined goal. Urgent tasks do not allow any delay and must be completed as quickly as possible.

Visualize the assignment of tasks by representing the four categories as quadrants of a matrix in the coordinate system with urgency on the X-axis and importance on the Y-axis. Alternatively, a table with two columns and two rows will do.

Each quadrant in the Eisenhower Matrix diagram is associated with a recommended action or strategy that tells you how to proceed with the tasks within that quadrant.

• Recommended action category A: Handle tasks yourself without delay
• Recommended action category B: Schedule tasks and complete them yourself in the near future.
• Recommended action category C: Delegate, outsource or automate if possible
• Recommended action category D: Do not process, delete from the process, eliminate

You can adapt these recommended actions according to your own requirements and authority. If you cannot or may not delegate tasks, you must either put category C tasks on hold or treat them like category B tasks.

Depending on which tasks end up in your quadrant D, you should also question on a case-by-case basis whether tasks are really so unimportant that they should be deleted completely. In many cases, a temporary hiding and a new revision after a quarter or half a year is probably more appropriate.

The Eisenhower method is very easy to apply and is basically based on rules of general "common sense". Nevertheless, it is very helpful to bring structure into your own tasks and visualize them in the sense of self-organization. Use our Eisenhower Matrix template or create your own Eisenhower Matrix Excel template and practice the method several times consciously. You will find that categorizing according to the Eisenhower principle will quickly become second nature to you and you will only use the matrix as a mental construct. Soon you will intuitively know what to do, delegate, schedule and leave immediately.

Download PDF template Eisenhower Matrix

The main advantages of the Eisenhower Matrix derive from its simplicity and clarity.

The Eisenhower Method

• is easy to apply and requires no prior knowledge
• does not require any material resources, apart from pen and paper.
• costs little time and helps to identify time wasters.
• helps to focus on urgent and strategically important tasks.
• provides the ideal basis for to-do lists to organize one's own work and team collaboration.
• ensures that tasks that were previously only thought of and loosely planned are firmly scheduled and put into a meaningful sequence.
• groups similar tasks, which can then be combined or worked on together.

The Eisenhower matrix is not always applicable or the best way to prioritize tasks:

• In agile ways of working, new tasks are continuously added or arise from existing tasks, so planning cannot last long and urgencies and importance can change spontaneously.
• The scheme with four quadrants is very rough and makes it difficult to specify different levels of importance and urgency more finely and precisely.
• There are no rules for dealing with newly emerging subtasks that may arise in the course of processing A-category tasks.
• Sometimes it is not useful to work only on important A-category tasks. Depending on the working method of mental freshness, it can also be useful to insert a task categorized as less important, but sometimes motivating.
• With very many tasks, effort for a valid categorization grows considerably.
• In creative activities, a too structured way of working is sometimes a hindrance.
• The Eisenhower Matrix does not replace structured task planning or a ticket system. It is merely a tool.
• If there are too many A-category tasks, they run into previously scheduled B-category tasks, creating renewed conflict and task backlog.
• In practice, important tasks are usually also scheduled/urgent and urgent tasks are usually important. Thus, the method often does not provide the desired clarity.

To be able to apply the Eisenhower Matrix, you must of course have sufficient authority to organize your work independently in the first place. If a superior assigns you tasks, for example in the form of tickets with an already predefined prioritization and deadline, your room for maneuver is small. Delegating tasks, as the Eisenhower principle envisages for category C tasks, is of course only possible if you are authorized to assign tasks to other people in the first place.

But the biggest criticism of the Eisenhower matrix is probably the following: Who determines what is important and what is not? Most of the time, this is strongly subject to our subjective assessment - but a task that is unimportant to us may have very important implications for a colleague, for example, because getting it done quickly is essential to their job. Another task we may only classify as important and urgent because the superior either threatened us with unpleasant consequences or we hoped for praise by completing it quickly.

It is therefore not enough for each employee to individually proir his or her tasks. Rather, it is necessary to exchange ideas in the team - for example, during Sprint Planning and in the Daily when working according to Scrum - and to discuss the importance of goals as well as the dependencies of tasks among each other. In order to be able to assess the actual importance and urgency of tasks as objectively as possible and to gauge the scope of our categorization, objective help is useful - for example, through collaboration tools or project management software.

The flexible customizing options of Projektron BCS also allow you to define any number of prioritization levels yourself and to schedule and plan your tasks individually. BCS ensures transparency when working in a team. At the same time, you can conveniently keep an eye on your own tasks and never lose focus on the essentials.

Test Projektron BCS free of charge!

Using the limited resource of time effectively is one of the greatest challenges in project management as well as in everyday teamwork and self-organization. Thanks to its simplicity and clarity, the Eisenhower Matrix is an excellent method for quickly creating clear relationships and prioritizing upcoming tasks.

It is also highly effective for prioritizing goals in the context of project planning. Finally, the method has also proven itself for decades because it is an effective counter-strategy to the phenomena famously known in project work as "Edwards' Law" (We are only really productive shortly before the deadline) and "Parkinson's Law" (Every job takes as long as there is time available). However, be careful not to prioritize goals and tasks based solely on subjective feelings, and don't topede your employees' and colleagues' time management by burdening them with too much.

In addition to the Eisenhower method, there is an ever-growing number of other time management and productivity methods. Some show strong similarities with the Eisenhower principle, some were inspired by it even:

• ABC method: With the Eisenhower matrix it concerns basically an ABCD analysis. With the ABC method a flow diagram steps instead of the Eisenhower matrix, but also here the tasks are sorted primarily according to importance, optionally additionally according to urgency. A-tasks are important and immediately to settle, B-tasks can be settled later, C-tasks are delegable or to be rejected.
• ALPEN method: The acronym ALPEN stands for a daily plan: Write down tasks, estimate length/duration, allow buffer time, prioritize decisions, follow-up.
• Getting-Things-Done Method (GTD): The five-step self-management method (1. Collect, 2. Process, 3. Organize, 4. Review, 5. Complete) strives to capture a person's entire day-to-day life with contextual task lists, among other things, to enable efficient and stress-free work.
• Eat-that-Frog method: Here the aim is to swallow the toad first every day, i.e. to complete the most unpleasant, time-consuming or difficult task first.
• Ivy Lee Method (a.k.a. $25,000 Method): According to this method, you prioritize up to six daily tasks, which you then work through in a structured manner according to importance.
• SMART method: This method helps to formulate and define goals. For this purpose, efforts to achieve the goals must be realistically estimated and deadlines set. Accordingly, goals must be formulated in a specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and timely manner.
• Pareto principle: The Pareto principle states that with 20 percent of the total effort, 80 percent of the planned result can already be achieved. According to this "80-20 rule", it is therefore important to focus on the tasks that promise the greatest possible return quickly.
• Pomodoro technique: This learning method can also be used to work on tasks. Choose a task to be done, outline the solution, set an alarm clock for 25 minutes and work with concentration. Then take a 5 minute break and check off the steps you have achieved. After 4 pomidori, i.e. work phases with short breaks, a longer break of 30 minutes follows. In this way, you work through tasks effectively and in a structured manner without getting distracted.