Eisenhower Matrix - Using Time Right

In our insanely fast-paced age, it seems that time is not just passing, but flies at the speed of a supersonic aircraft. In such a cycle of events and days, loaded with a mass of deeds and plans, we often cannot realize even half of what was planned. And I want to be in time for everything. How to use time correctly, using the Eisenhower matrix, we will consider in more detail.

Time is all we have. Good or bad we live our life directly depends on how and on what we spend the time allotted to us. And those who dream of being able to do a lot on their way, as a rule, learn how to effectively manage their time. Time management (time management) is nothing more than planning. It is it that helps to stop worrying about the bitter feeling that time is short, that it is sorely lacking and because of this there is no time to do anything.

Once upon a time, the famous American military and political leader Dwight David Eisenhower, who was also the President of the United States, seriously took up the search for a solution to the problem of effective planning. And he managed to find a solution to this problem, he even came up with his own time management system.

It just so happened that the human brain more easily and better perceives structured information, that is, brought into a certain system, broken down into shelves. At the same time, it would be nice to visualize these shelves, make them visual, for example, with the help of some kind of diagrams or diagrams.It is this principle of the distribution of cases that underlies the Eisenhower matrix, which is one of the leading methods of the theory of effective time management.

Visualization of the plan of affairs and actions using the matrix is ​​very simple. Draw a square on paper, divide it with two perpendicular lines into four equal margins. You should get a window with a lattice in the form of a cross. These fields will divide your affairs into 4 groups, each of which will depend on signs of importance / unimportance and urgency / non-urgency. The fields formed from the intersection of lines are called quadrants (a mathematical concept) and are denoted as follows:

• Quadrant A (important and urgent tasks);
• B quadrant (important but not urgent tasks);
• S quadrant (not important, but urgent tasks);
• Quadrant D (unimportant and non-urgent tasks).

The Eisenhower Matrix has both advantages and disadvantages. Let's describe both, and start with the benefits.

• Despite its name "matrix", which implies something complex, the system is actually very easy to understand and applied without any difficulty.
• Cases, goals and objectives are divided into only 4 categories, this helps to better navigate in them.
• The distribution of tasks according to the criteria of urgency and importance allows you to push non-urgent and unimportant matters into the background, thereby giving important and urgent ones to the fore. This is how the analysis and filtering of cases occurs. Those who don't need to spend time on at all are eliminated.
• The main advantage is that the matrix makes it possible to make time expenditures as efficient as possible, which, in turn, makes it possible to complete everything on time.

There are also drawbacks to this system.

• The matrix is ​​ineffective in long-term planning. It is suitable for carrying out current affairs or those calculated for the near future.
• When there are no daily goals, then there is no need to apply such a system.
• To use the matrix effectively, you need to quickly and accurately distribute goals into groups. To do this, it is necessary to understand which of them can be assigned the “important” degree, and which goals are not very important, which must be completed urgently, and which are optional. Such training takes time, that is, the matrix does not begin to "work" for you right away, but this is a minus.
• And, as a result of the previous paragraph, there may be errors with the accuracy of assigning cases to a certain status.

Let's consider each quadrant of the matrix in more detail.

If you are a master of planning, then the A quadrant will be empty. If there are cases in it, this indicates your poor organization. You admit education in the affairs of rush jobs and blockages. The reason for this picture is, as a rule, laziness.

Or you may be mis-prioritizing. Of course, sometimes such situations are permissible, but when this is observed systematically, then it is simply necessary to work on personal self-discipline. In order to avoid "settling" of the fad in the A quadrant, it is necessary to timely cope with the tasks entered in the remaining fields.

But a small to-do list in the A quadrant can still be made. It can be:

• health issues;
• deeds, the failure of which can provoke the emergence of problems, worsen the quality of life, threaten the well-being in the family and work;
• cases, the failure of which will significantly complicate the path to achieving the main goals or lead to their failure;
• exit from various emergency and crisis situations.

If, nevertheless, you have a lot of points in this quadrant, then throw all your efforts to eliminate them. And do not forget that the fulfillment of some items from the list of important and urgent ones can be readdressed, delegated to one of the trusted persons, it is not necessary to shoulder the entire burden of all matters only on yourself.This approach will help you cope with the fullness of the A quadrant faster.

Observations show that people who give preference to solving problems from the B quadrant become the most successful, climb the career ladder faster, are the most financially prosperous, do not lack time, and live a harmonious, fulfilling life. Non-urgent tasks belong to the category of the most promising and priority ones, and if a person pays his main attention to them, then everything goes right for him.

It should be borne in mind that the lack of urgency in group B sometimes leads to a delay in the implementation of the outlined points, and they migrate to group A, where they will already require a quick response. If you solve important, but not very urgent tasks gradually and regularly, then this process will be calm and efficient. You need to approach this kind of business responsibly, and the lack of urgency makes it possible to fully control the progress of the case, bring all the details to the ideal, clearly think over all the steps, thereby ultimately obtaining a productive result.

The Eisenhower Matrix primarily teaches us to prioritize correctly. This means that the most important thing in planning is the ability to distinguish the important things that lead you to big goals from the secondary ones. The tasks that need to be included in group C are not important, in essence, they are distracting from the main goals of the case, they do not contribute to progress, but, on the contrary, only slow down the development process. Often they interfere with concentrating on achieving important goals and thereby reduce the effectiveness of the past tense.

Do not confuse urgent matters from field C, which are unimportant, with urgent matters from field A, which are just extremely important. This, as a rule, leads to the fact that the really important remains in the background. A vivid example of such a situation can be meetings imposed by someone from the outside, which are not necessary for you, or empty long conversations, going to parties and celebrations, invitations to which come from people who are not of interest to you, some household chores, breakdown of household appliances and the like. Yes, this must be done urgently, but the solution of these tasks is not a vital necessity, and their failure does not entail trouble.

Classes from this group do not give anything, on the contrary, they can do harm. They should be tried to be postponed until later, and it is better to ignore them altogether. But you need to know the enemy by sight - you should certainly make a list of such "pests" in field D, because these are the very activities that "eat up" our time. It is these cases that are so tempting and attractive to many people for their simplicity and promise to give relaxation and pleasure, to spend time in sweet bliss.

Such characteristics of these "cases" create a huge temptation to deal with them in the first place, and let, as they say, the whole world will wait. It can be extremely difficult to get out of the whirlpool of such pseudo-cases, as they really drag on a person. But attempts to destroy the habit of engaging in them cannot be abandoned.

These activities include:

• conversations about nothing, empty, meaningless conversations (both on the phone and in person);
• the same as the conversations from the previous paragraph, correspondence in instant messengers, social networks, all kinds of chats;
• watching films, serials, TV programs that do not carry a semantic load, distracting from serious problems and cases that cause various negative emotions;
• computer and other (not educational) games.

Rest for body and soul is undoubtedly needed, but there are many other useful ways to exercise it:

• reading quality literature;
• visits to exhibitions, theaters and museums;
• games developing intelligence;
• classes in the pool, gym, trips to skating rinks, trips out of town to nature, travel, etc.

If you can't completely eradicate harmful activities from group D from your life, then you need to try to at least delay them, pay attention to them only when things from groups A and B are completed. But try to reduce the amount of time spent on "empty" activities as much as possible ...

There is a high probability of attributing the case to an inappropriate group. This is the main problem in building the hierarchy of our priorities. To make it easier to cope with it, you need to learn how to answer two questions using two words - "yes" or "no". For example: "Will completing this case help me get closer to my main goal?" The answer "yes" means the importance of the case, the answer "no" means unimportance.

"If I do not solve this problem now, will it lose its relevance tomorrow?" The answer “yes” means the urgency of the matter, the answer “no” is not the urgency. Having determined the category for each lesson in this way, first of all do things from group A, and then from group B.

The best time to create a matrix is ​​to start a new day. Think carefully about what tasks are ahead of you in the near future and write them down in the form of a regular list. Then test each one using the above questions and place them in the boxes according to the answers. Do not forget to mention the smallest and most insignificant things that just waste our time.

The total number of tasks is determined for yourself by yourself. Having divided the cases into appropriate categories, you can write in a notebook or create in the phone organizer a usual convenient list in descending order of urgency and importance, so that the first on the list are cases from group A, second from B, third from C, and from D you don't have to write it down at all. Remember that tasks from Groups A and C must be delegated to family, friends, colleagues, or subordinates. But group B - these are the things that are important to do on your own.

Anyone who needs it can use the Eisenhower Matrix. It is good because it will be equally useful to everyone, regardless of age and social status: the heads of organizations and enterprises, and ordinary workers and employees, and housewives, and students, and children studying in schools.

Let's look at an example of what the Eisenhower daily records might look like.

A group of urgent and important matters:

• drive the car to the service station for repairs, since I need it for work;
• submit a quarterly report;
• deal with the problem with a bank card.

A group of not urgent, but important matters:

• develop a new theme and outline the main directions of the new project;
• quit smoking;
• learn English;
• buy a gym membership.

A group of urgent, but not important matters:

• go to the anniversary of San Sanych from the legal department;
• congratulate everyone on social networks on the first day of spring.

A group of non-urgent and unimportant cases:

• clean up the closet;
• disassemble things on the mezzanine;
• watch the series;
• play with the parrot.

The Eisenhower Matrix can be compared to a purification system, a filter that allows you to get rid of unnecessary things. At first, you may need to compose it daily, but with the accumulation of experience, you will begin to feel at the level of intuition which business belongs to which category. And as soon as such a time management system is mastered, and you learn to use it effectively, as well as to correctly distribute cases into quadrants, you will immediately feel a surge of freedom.You will begin to have time to do everything on time and at the same time not rush, your life will be brought back to normal, goals that seem unattainable will suddenly begin to be achieved. And you will be guaranteed the presence of excellent condition and high spirits, energy and vivacity.

Discipline is the foundation of success. Surely you paid attention to such people who do not have such qualities, they are in an endless whirlwind of endless "affairs", all the time doing something empty, meaningless, but, according to their statements, is impossibly important. And the sight of these people is constantly tired, worn out, lost, unhappy. They are always annoyed, fussy and restless.

If you do not want to be like that and do not want to evoke only sympathy and pity in people, then you must act on the principle of the opposite. If everything happens for them, and you want opposite results, then you need to act in opposite ways. Namely: to put discipline in order, master the techniques of self-organization, adhere to clear plans, schedules and regimes, clearly understand when and what to do, and most importantly, what is all this for, what is the goal. And the Eisenhower matrix will be an excellent assistant for you in these matters.

After all, it is not for nothing that its founder, whose name she bears, was able to build such a dizzying career and become one of the most famous and beloved presidents of the American people, as well as a very successful military leader. And all this despite the fact that this great man was born into a poor family. You can safely take an example from such people and use the tools they have invented.