The Eisenhower matrix: sort your tasks by urgent and important

The Eisenhower matrix is a simple grid for deciding what deserves your time. You ask two questions about each task: is it urgent, and is it important? The answers put it in one of four boxes, and each box calls for a different response. Done honestly, it shows how much of your day goes to things that are loud rather than things that matter.

This guide explains where the idea comes from, what each quadrant means, the mistakes people make with it, and how to build an Eisenhower matrix in Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Where the Eisenhower matrix comes from

The name comes from a speech. On August 19, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Evanston, Illinois. He quoted "a former college president" who had said: "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent."

Two details are often lost. Eisenhower credited the line to someone else, and he did not draw a grid. The four-box version became widely known through Stephen R. Covey, who presented it as the Time Matrix in Habit 3, "Put First Things First", of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, published in 1989. Who first drew the grid and called it the "Eisenhower matrix" is not clear from the original sources.

Urgent versus important

The matrix only works if you keep the two words apart. FranklinCovey's page on Habit 3 draws the line clearly:

• Urgency is about timing. It presses on you now, like a ringing phone.
• Importance is about what you value. It connects to your mission, your values and your priority goals.

Urgent things announce themselves. Important things usually do not, which is why they get pushed aside.

The four quadrants of the Eisenhower matrix

Urgent and important

Crises, real deadlines, problems that need you today. These get done, because they have to. The goal is not to remove this box, but to keep it from being the only one you live in.

Important, not urgent

Planning, creative thinking, prevention, relationships, learning and renewal. FranklinCovey calls this the best return on your time. Nobody chases you for it, so it only happens when you make room for it.

Urgent, not important

Things that demand a quick response but add little value. They feel pressing because they are in front of you. Handle them quickly, batch them, or hand them to someone better placed.

Not urgent, not important

Time-wasters. The aim is to notice them, not to feel guilty about every break.

Many apps label the four boxes Do, Schedule, Delegate and Delete. That shorthand is popular, but it does not come from Eisenhower's speech, and FranklinCovey's page on Habit 3 does not use it. Use it if it helps you remember what to do with each box.

Common Eisenhower matrix mistakes

• Calling everything urgent and important. If one box holds most of your list, you are sorting by anxiety, not by the two questions. Ask "what happens if this waits a week?"
• Mixing up urgent and important. A loud request is not automatically important. Check it against your goals, not against how it arrived.
• Never scheduling the important, not urgent work. Sorting it into the right box is not enough. Give it a time, or it stays there forever.
• Making the matrix once. Tasks change boxes as deadlines approach. Revisit it at least weekly.
• Using it for every small task. The matrix shines for decisions about where your time goes. For a long to-do list, a system like Getting Things Done handles the volume better.

How to build an Eisenhower matrix in Barside

Barside notes can hold a kanban board, a database table and checklists that become tasks. A board makes the clearest matrix, because you can see all four boxes and drag tasks between them.

Make the matrix as a board

1. Create a note called Priorities. Type /board on an empty line and press Enter, or press the board button in the note toolbar. The board starts with To do, Doing and Done.
2. Open each column's ⋯ menu, choose Rename, and call them Urgent and important, Important, not urgent and Urgent, not important. Press Add column for the fourth: Neither.
3. Use Color in the same menu to tell them apart, for example red, blue, orange and gray.
4. Under each column, press New and type a card for each task. Enter saves it and keeps the box open for the next one.
5. As things change, drag a card to another column, or select it and press Alt with the left or right arrow.

The board's columns sit side by side rather than in a two-by-two grid, but each column shows a count of its cards, so you see at a glance which box is crowded. Open Note options and choose Pin to the top to keep the note at the head of its workspace.

Turn the boxes into action

Board cards are text, not tasks: they have no due date or reminder. So move what you will actually do into a checklist below the board:

• Urgent and important. Add a checklist item and give it today's date with + date. It shows on the task board under Today.
• Important, not urgent. Give it a date later in the week, or press the bell and set a reminder for the hour you plan to work on it. If you plan your days in Google Calendar or Outlook, block the time there; Barside shows those events in its Calendar view next to your notes.
• Urgent, not important. Batch these into one checklist item, or hand them off and track them in a Waiting for note with a reminder to follow up.
• Neither. Delete the card.

Variation: a table you can filter and chart

If you prefer filters, type /database for a database table instead. Add two Checkbox columns, Urgent and Important, or one Choice column, Box, with the four options in four colors. Filter, then Add a filter, shows one box at a time, such as only the rows where Important is ticked. Under the table, type /chart and pick Donut in Chart settings to see how your list splits across the four boxes. Look at it each week to see whether the important, not urgent box gets its share.

A worked example

Say it is Monday, and your list holds six things: a client's logo files due tomorrow, a broken payment link a customer just reported, next quarter's plan, a course you keep meaning to start, an invitation to a call about the office party, and a backlog of newsletters.

• The logo files and the payment link go in Urgent and important. Both get today's date.
• The quarterly plan and the course go in Important, not urgent. Each gets a reminder for a quiet morning this week.
• The party call goes in Urgent, not important: a short reply, or a colleague can cover it.
• The newsletters go in Neither for now, or into Reading, where they wait without cluttering your email.

Five minutes of sorting, and the two tasks that shape next quarter have a time instead of a vague intention.

Review it every week

During your weekly review, open the Priorities note, move cards that changed boxes, and make sure at least one important, not urgent task has a date or a reminder for the coming week. The GTD weekly review guide shows how to make that review note arrive by itself.

Who the Eisenhower matrix suits

• Managers and founders who face more requests than hours.
• Students balancing deadlines with long-term study.
• Anyone who ends the day busy but unsatisfied, since the matrix shows where the time went.

It suits people less as a complete task system. It is a sorting tool, so most people pair it with a list or board they use every day.

Related methods

• Getting Things Done, David Allen's system for capturing and organizing every commitment.
• Time blocking, to give the important, not urgent work a real slot in your day.
• Personal kanban, a board that limits how much you have in progress.
• The GTD weekly review, a weekly moment to re-sort your priorities.