The Eisen­how­er Matrix: sort by im­por­tance and urgency

In companies, it is important that tasks are processed as quickly as possible. But it’s also crucial to set pri­or­i­ties so that urgent matters aren’t forgotten because in everyday life – be it at work or at home – less urgent tasks often cost un­nec­es­sary time, which could be used for something more urgent. With the so-called “Eisen­how­er Principle,” you have a basis for setting sensible pri­or­i­ties and op­ti­miz­ing your time man­age­ment. This enables you to meet more goals more quickly.

The Pareto Principle states that 80% of planned results can be achieved with 20% of the total de­ploy­ment. However, the problem is that employees busy them­selves with the other 80% of tasks, which only lead to 20% of the results.

This problem was also rec­og­nized by the American general and US president Dwight D. Eisen­how­er. He developed a time man­age­ment method in which a matrix is used to classify the tasks that need to be un­der­tak­en. Eisen­how­er dis­tin­guish­es between the im­por­tance and urgency of tasks.

Using this simple matrix, which consists of four quadrants in total, ensures greater pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in the long term. If you make use of the Eisen­how­er box, you first perform the tasks that are important and urgent, and then devote yourself to those projects that are also important, but are less urgent. Less important tasks, on the other hand, are delegated to others or sometimes even discarded. Here’s an overview of the four quadrants:

• A – important and urgent: These tasks have the highest priority and must be completed im­me­di­ate­ly. Otherwise, the goals set cannot be achieved.
• B – important, but not urgent: These tasks must also be completed so that you can achieve your own goals. However, it is quite possible to postpone these tasks for a while.
• C – urgent, but not important: These tasks should be completed quite quickly. However, the tasks are of minor im­por­tance, which is why Eisen­how­er rec­om­mends del­e­gat­ing these as much as possible.
• D – neither important nor urgent: These tasks are the last on the list of pri­or­i­ties, as they are not relevant (or are hardly relevant) for achieving the ob­jec­tives and do not have to be completed par­tic­u­lar­ly urgently. If there is little time available, these tasks can often simply remain un­fin­ished.

Download the PDF template for the Eisen­how­er Matrix for free.

The Eisen­how­er Principle helps you to improve your time man­age­ment. By setting pri­or­i­ties in a clear and un­am­bigu­ous way, the most important projects can be completed first. The model is par­tic­u­lar­ly practical for people in man­age­ment positions, as their time is usually par­tic­u­lar­ly valuable and they can easily delegate less important tasks to their employees. This, in turn, has the advantage that employees are more involved in the company's work processes.

However, the Eisen­how­er box also has some dis­ad­van­tages. For example, it is often difficult to classify the im­por­tance of a task correctly. As a result, it can happen that important tasks are delegated to the wrong employees and as a result are not fulfilled suf­fi­cient­ly. Urgency, on the other hand, can usually be de­ter­mined by deadlines. If no deadline is set, the employee must use their own integrity to decide if it’s urgent or not.

Another problem can be the uneven dis­tri­b­u­tion of tasks. This is because often the tasks that need com­plet­ing only concern a few people or de­part­ments, since important tasks are usually urgent and urgent tasks are rarely unim­por­tant. Con­se­quent­ly, tasks like these cannot be delegated or put to one side.

An employee is sitting in their office in New York at 9am. After checking the morning e-mails, they read a newspaper article. At 11am, their boss is expecting a potential customer to come for a meeting. Then the em­ploy­ee's telephone rings. The boss informs them that they suddenly have to go to an ap­point­ment in Ohio at short notice to take the place of a sick colleague and therefore can’t make it to the meeting. The employee now needs to schedule a new ap­point­ment as well as organize the trip to Ohio. The boss also needs certain documents for the trip.

If the employee is following the Eisen­how­er Principle, they would proceed as follows:

• They supply the documents that the boss needs for their trip (A task, urgent and important)
• They arrange a new ap­point­ment with the customer (B task)
• The employee delegates the task of buying a flight ticket to Ohio to the de­part­ment of the company re­spon­si­ble for this e.g. the event de­part­ment (C task, A task in the event de­part­ment)
• Reading the newspaper article is a D task that is neither relevant nor urgent and can therefore be postponed or abandoned

The quadrant with the D tasks causes problems for many people. This is where the non-urgent and at the same time unim­por­tant tasks end up. In order to free your desk from these tasks, there are the following pos­si­bil­i­ties:

• Compost heap: All documents that do not contain any daily in­for­ma­tion­al value for work should be placed on a pile – the so-called compost heap. This pile is only processed when there is actually time for it, because there are no more urgent tasks to be done first. Every few months, the employee throws at least one fifth of the stack into the trash – without having to leaf through the stack again. Some tasks may already have been completed by then anyway.
• Waste­bas­ket: Material that is neither important nor urgent can be put in the waste­bas­ket im­me­di­ate­ly. This may take some courage, but the employee feels much freer af­ter­wards and saves time.
• Filing: The third option is to file the documents in a filing system. In contrast to a compost heap, however, the employee checks the documents every few months and then decides whether to process them or throw them in the trash.

In addition to the Eisen­how­er Matrix and the Pareto Principle, ABC analysis is another method designed to make time man­age­ment more effective. ABC analysis is quick and easy to use:

• A tasks: extremely important and urgent
• B tasks: important, but not urgent
• C tasks: less important, routine

It is often the case that the C tasks are the most time-consuming, but bring the least profit. The A tasks, on the other hand, have the greatest benefit in that they need the least time. The purpose of the ABC analysis, the Pareto Principle, and the Eisen­how­er Matrix, is to focus on the A tasks. These should prefer­ably be performed when the con­cen­tra­tion and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of the employee is at its highest. C tasks, on the other hand, are often routine tasks. Therefore, they should be performed at times when the ability to con­cen­trate decreases somewhat. C tasks are only due once the A and B tasks have been completed.

The main dif­fer­ence is that the Eisen­how­er Matrix covers a larger time window, whereas the ABC analysis is more focused on a single day. The aim of ABC analysis is therefore to pri­or­i­tize daily tasks within a to-do list in order to ef­fi­cient­ly complete projects over a day. The Eisen­how­er diagram, on the other hand, is suitable for long-term projects and can also help to structure your own everyday life – whether at work or privately.

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