Exploring the Eisenhower Matrix

Do you often times end up thinking "Am I doing this because it is needs to be done or because of a deadline?" or "I thought of just scrolling through the Insta stories, and it was 3 hours ago"? What easy methods can we use to prioritize tasks and how to time-slice our daily activities?

Slicing Bandwidth using the Priority Matrix

Eisenhower Matrix or Priority Matrix is an important prioritization tool in Time Management, which gives the concept of categorizing our daily tasks under the heads of Urgency and Importance.

Applying the priority matrix to the daily tasks of a development team is what the video below tries to show, along with the percentage of time slices advised to be dedicated to each of the quadrants.

• Quadrant 1 features pressing problems which need to be attended to at once or delegated with deadline. Dedicating 5% of total bandwidth is recommended since firefighting shouldn't become a norm for any of the dev teams.
• Tasks in Q2 are the ones which are considered mundane in our teams. It is always observed that if Items in Quadrant 2 are ignored concentrating on the other quadrants, items swiftly are seen to shift to Quadrant 1. Hence it is recommended to spend good amount of time on Quadrant 2 - 75% of the Bandwidth.
• Unavoidable but trivial tasks are the highlight of Quadrant 3. Curtail these tasks and get the urgency resolved, dedicating not more than 15% of the bandwidth.
• Relaxing, entertaining and Dopamine releasing activities are factored in Quadrant 4. Although seemingly necessary for maintaining a light mood at the workplace, it is to be mindfully limited to no more than 5% of bandwidth as fillers between tasks.

Conclusion

Applying the #eisenhower #principle to the #tasks in a typical #developmentteam with the slices of #time advised to be dedicated to each category is featured in this article. The percentages recommended can be considered for practice, to avoid the important but non-urgent tasks transitioning into urgent category. This helps team maintain a regimen of #discipline and grow intellectually and by consequence create #selfmanaging teams.