How to prioritize your to-do list using the Eisenhower Matrix

Dwight D. Eisenhower. Does this name ring a bell? To be honest, for me, it didn’t. Not until I heard about the Eisenhower Matrix for task prioritization.

However Dwight D. Eisenhower deserves to be known: five-star general during World War II and 34th president of the United States, he led the construction of the Interstate Highway System, created NASA, and ended the Korean War, among other accomplishments. He did all that by understanding the difference between the urgent and the important, and using it to be more productive.

Later, author Stephen Covey popularized Eisenhower’s method in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to make it the now-popular task management tool known as the Eisenhower Matrix.

• Why prioritize?
• What is the Eisenhower Matrix?
• How to use the Eisenhower Matrix?
• Eisenhower Matrix for your team

Why prioritize?

If you are like me, I suspect you are often motivated and eager to get things done, which usually ends up with having do-to lists a mile long as if you had 72h in one day.

The drawbacks here:

• I was feeling disappointed at the end of the day as I didn’t manage to get as many things done as I thought I could
• I was easily caught in the “urgency trap”, selecting urgent tasks but with no high impact
• I felt like I was, at the same time, doing a lot but not making real progress on my projects & goals

“Busywork is work that makes you feel like you’re getting something done and may even be necessary. But ultimately, it doesn’t get you closer to your end goal.” - Taylor Martin

?It was high time for me to learn how to prioritize my tasks better.

That’s where the Eisenhower Matrix helped me a lot.

As James Clear says: “I find that the Eisenhower Matrix is particularly useful because it pushes me to question whether an action is really necessary”

Prioritizing is basically identifying what is really essential to be done, which actions are more impactful by asking yourself the question: “Does this help me accomplish my goals?”

What is the Eisenhower Matrix?

The Eisenhower Matrix, or Prioritization Matrix, is a four-quadrant chart that helps you categorize all your tasks based on their urgency and importance. It defines four blocks, for which different actions will apply:

• First quadrant (upper left): Urgent and important
• Second quadrant (upper right): Urgent and not important
• Third quadrant (lower left): Not urgent and important
• Fourth quadrant (lower right): Not urgent and not important

How to use the Eisenhower Matrix?

Step 1: List your tasks

It can be on paper. It can be with a digital tool or app. The goal is to list everything you have to do.

On my side, I use Trello, with a backlog column for my incoming tasks and then 4 columns for each category of the Eisenhower Matrix (you can also use tags here).

Here is a Trello template board you can duplicate and reuse: Eisenhower Matrix Trello template board.

Step 2: Categorize your tasks

Then, take each task on your “Incoming” to-do list, think about it and categorize it:

• Is it urgent and important? → Do these first!
• Is it not urgent and important? → Schedule time for these in the coming weeks.
• Is it urgent and not important? → Delegate these if you can. Otherwise, tackle them next.
• Is it not urgent and not important? → You can delete these from your to-do list.

Step 3: Get to work!

The Eisenhower Matrix for your team

This prioritization matrix can help not only with your individual to-do list but also with organizing your team tasks and keeping your team members aligned.

Atlassian offers a valuable resource in that objective: a playbook for team projects to make quarterly and annual plans that result in the highest impact.

→ Use the Atlassian Playbook: Prioritization Matrix: Organize Allthethings Your Team Does

So, what do you think about this prioritization framework? Do you already use? Will you now? Do you have other tips for prioritizing your tasks? Let me know, I'm curious ;)