Eisenhower matrix in daily planning. What is the Eisenhower Matrix

34 US President Dwight David Eisenhower was a very busy man. In order to manage to get more done in a day, he created his own effective time management tool, which today is called the Eisenhower Matrix or Priority Matrix. What is the essence of the method?

What is the Eisenhower Matrix?

The idea of ​​the Eisenhower matrix is ​​to learn to quickly distinguish between important matters from minor ones and those that do not require attention at all. Eisenhower proposed to divide all current and planned cases into 4 categories according to the principle of urgency and importance. For clarity, he drew a square and divided it into 4 fields. Each of the fields contained a to-do list:

• 1 field: Important and urgent matters;
• 2 field: Important, but not very urgent matters;
• 3rd field: Not important, but urgent matters;
• 4th field: Not important and not urgent matters.

How to work with the Eisenhower square?

Consider the Eisenhower square in more detail:

1. Important and urgent matters. What would you put in this category? How many urgent and important things could be written in this square? The trick is that planning according to Eisenhower can only be called effective when the very first square is always clean, without a single entry. If you have a list of tasks that you can attribute to this field of the matrix, it means that something interferes with your productive work: laziness, lack of self-discipline, inability to set priorities correctly, etc. All this leads to rush jobs, which has a bad effect on the mental and physical state of a person.
2. Important but not very urgent matters. Eisenhower, creating his time management system, was sure that this particular category was the most important. To place a task here in a timely manner and take up its execution means the opportunity to devote as much time as necessary to solving the problem. So, for example, a timely visit to the doctor will prevent the disease, and writing a student thesis a little ahead of schedule leave room for error correction.
3. Not very important, but urgent matters. This field of the Esenhower Matrix is ​​intended to place cases here that interfere with effective work and therefore require immediate elimination. For example, fixing a computer breakdown, helping your mother-in-law transport furniture to the country house, etc.
4. Not urgent, not important. In the matrix of priorities there is also a place for the things that we do daily in order to distract ourselves from work.

   These are long phone conversations, watching TV shows, friend tapes, writing letters, etc. That is, all those things that are pleasant, but not mandatory. Eisenhower, speaking of priorities, called such activities "time wasters" that negatively affect work productivity.

It will be more convenient to work with the Eisenhower square if:

• Arrange the tasks in each field in order of importance, numbering them in Latin letters or numbers. It is worth taking on more urgent and important matters first;
• Focus mainly on the things from square 2. If the things from the list of not very urgent, but important, fall into the square of important and urgent things, it's not scary. The main thing is that such a movement does not become a trend;
• Set long-term goals for yourself and outline the tasks to achieve them step by step. Distribute tasks by squares;
• Do not be distracted from the current task by smoking breaks, viewing mail and other things.

Thus, the matrix created by President Eisenhower is an effective time management tool that has been successfully used in practice for more than half a century.

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The Eisenhower Matrix as a Prioritization Tool

There is an opinion that this method was used by General Dwight Eisenhower.

He compiled a case classification matrix that he used to organize his time more efficiently, and it helped him succeed in becoming President of the United States.

All cases, according to the Eisenhower matrix, can be divided into four categories according to their importance and urgency.

Let's take a closer look at each of these categories.

A. Important and urgent. Cases in this category must be done immediately. The most appropriate word for them is "hands down".

Tomorrow is the exam, but the tickets have not yet been learned, and one has to hurriedly finish learning what has been put off for a long time for later.

"We must live in such a way that important things do not turn into urgent ones."

B. Important and non-urgent. Cases of this category are the most “offended”, we pay the least attention to them, because they are not urgent! “Time endures,” we think about such matters and put them on the back burner. “The exam is so far away, the whole semester is ahead, you can not think about it yet

about preparation ... Well, there is still a month before the exam, I will have time to learn everything ... Another whole week ahead, there is time ... ”And gradually, due to our neglect of the affairs of the category V they turn into category cases A. And now it’s the last night before the exam, and we are frantically trying to remember at least something, and our head is spinning: “Oh, I should have started preparing earlier!” To avoid a similar scenario of events in your life, to the cases of the category V should be approached as an investment that needs to be made today in order to make a profit tomorrow.

WITH. unimportant and urgent . Tricky things that like to "pretend to be important." They cleverly disguise themselves as deeds of the category A, and they often manage to trick us: it is human nature to confuse importance and urgency, which is what category C tasks take advantage of. It is these tasks that create an atmosphere of fuss, bustle and eternal haste, but for some reason this state of affairs is often considered an indicator of active work. But even at the beginning of the 20th century. F. Taylor, a classic of the scientific organization of labor, noted that a well-organized enterprise is one where no one runs anywhere, does not fuss, and all things are done slowly, but on time and with high quality. Look carefully at your personal corporation "I". How are things with you?

D. Unimportant and non-urgent("trash can"). These types of cases include our time wasters. They are often enjoyable and interesting, which is why we prefer to spend on them. best watch, and then we can not remember where so much time has gone? It is necessary to “finance” such cases according to the residual principle, otherwise they will “eat up” the entire budget of our time. If we follow this principle, they may well turn from absorbers into our helpers.

Make it a rule: “I will write an essay on economics, do a task on time management, and if there is free time, I will play for an hour

into a computer game”, and strictly follow it. Then the important work will be done, and there will be time for entertainment.

Benefits of the Eisenhower Matrix:

- easy to use;

- allows you to reduce the number of unimportant cases;

- helps to quickly identify priority tasks and cases.

Stephen Covey Time Management Matrix

Stephen Covey was one of the few people on the planet who knew how to properly manage every minute of time.

Covey worked on the author's time management system over several years, investing in it all practical experience, which he has accumulated over hundreds, and maybe thousands, of consultations from businessmen and just business people who dream of squeezing everything out of time. Until the very last drop.

Stephen has written several books on productivity. The most famous The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It describes the habits that you need to adhere to in order to become more productive.

Briefly about each of the habits:

1. Be proactive. Change the world around you to create a comfortable environment for achieving goals, self-realization and creation. Ignore factors that are beyond your control, such as politics
2. Get started with your end goal in mind. All your actions should be directed towards achieving this goal.
3. Compose time management matrix and give priority to important and at the same time non-urgent tasks
4. Act on strategy win-win(won-won).

   In any problem, there are always 2 sides (participants). Think about how to solve it simultaneously and in the most beneficial way for everyone

5. First seek to understand the person, to be understood is a matter of second importance. Develop empathic listening - accepting emotions, feelings, and not just words from a person. And don't forget to give your
6. Strive to catch the synergistic effect. Synergy means that the whole is always greater than its constituent parts. The effect appears when working on difficult tasks, as well as when working in a team
7. Sharpen your saw. Continually improve your planning, communication and empathy skills

The most interesting and unusual item of the above is the third item: "The Time Matrix".

What is a time management matrix and how to work with it

A matrix is ​​a template by which one can determine task order.

Physically matrix is a square divided into 4 smaller squares. measured horizontally urgency, and vertically importance.

Any new business must be correlated with one of the squares and, depending on the chosen square, a specific action must be taken, for example, immediately take on the implementation or postpone it for later.

Case options

Stephen Covey's time management matrix suggests 4 options for the development of actions.

If the case urgent and important, it needs to be done right now. The proportion of such cases can reach up to 40-50%. Covey argues that urgent and important tasks contribute little to achieving your main goals. The presence of a large number of such cases, first of all, speaks of an emergency, and therefore, of improper organization of working time and low personal productivity.

If the case urgent and important, then for its implementation you need to allocate the maximum amount of time, attention and resources. It is these things that lead you to your goals, which means that the benefits from the implementation are maximum.

If the case urgent and unimportant, you need to delegate (instruct) it. Try to find a performer for whom this task is important. This way you save your own time.

If the case unimportant and unimportant- don't do it. Sometimes it is psychologically difficult to refuse to perform, because the idea has already strengthened in the mind that the task must be completed. If you can’t show willpower and overcome yourself, put the task on a separate “To Do Someday” list.

How to manage a lot of cases using the matrix

Most likely, you are a very busy person and the number of your cases is measured in dozens.

Trying to keep them in your head or write them down on paper is counterproductive.

We present you LeaderTask - a specialized program for analyzing cases. LeaderTask supports Stephen Covey's time management methodology.

Create 4 folders (projects) in the program to work on the time matrix:

Start filling them with tasks:

Try LeaderTask to work on the Covey time management matrix.

Download LeaderTask

The Eisenhower Matrix (bearing the name of the 34th President of the United States, who invented it) is one of the time management methods for prioritizing the tasks of the day. The matrix looks like four squares, which are obtained by crossing the axes "Important - Not Important" horizontally and "Urgent - Not Urgent" vertically.

How to use this matrix? Just sort your tasks (for example, the tasks of the day) there according to their importance and urgency.

Important and urgent matters are those that are very important and cannot be delayed. Without them, everything will collapse, and it will be too late to make them tomorrow. These things need to be done today, first of all - and without fail. Examples of important and urgent tasks: completing a project task that is about to be due; an unscheduled trip to the dentist, traumatologist or other specialist; urgent phone call to a client or counterparty. In theory, the square of important and urgent matters should be empty, but in practice, sometimes every person has important and urgent matters, some of them are generated by laziness, some by a lack of professionalism, and some by force majeure.

Things that are important but not urgent are important things that will soon become urgent. If you do not plan to wait for this and arrange an unnecessary race for yourself, then pay close attention to these matters. Examples of such cases: current (planned) work on your projects; planning new projects; evaluation of the results obtained by projects.

Things are not important, but urgent. As a rule, things that do not bring you closer to the goal, whatever it may be, fall into this square, these are things that need to be done, but only in order to do them. Happy birthday (it turns out that Vasya was born today), the unexpected arrival of guests and other unplanned, imposed meetings that cannot be refused. If you can delegate something from this, instruct someone, do it by all means.

Not important and not urgent things - this is the most disgusting category of cases. They are not important, they are not urgent, but they are what you want to do. These are your time wasters - reading glossy magazines, playing computer games, watching TV and surfing the Internet.

Important: many people start doing garbage when they are just tired. When you want, you want. So, this is the wrong decision. That's right - plan a quality vacation (this category is Important, but not urgent) and have a quality rest, and not engage in garbage.

In summary, as a tool, the Eisenhower matrix works and, moreover, organizes well if you follow it. You can be proud of yourself if the "Important and Urgent" square is often empty for you: and this is quite real if you more often deal with the affairs of the "Important, but not Urgent" square. This is how professionals work!

It will be useful for you to determine how effectively you spend your time, whether you know how to set priorities and delegate responsibilities.

Write out a plan for one day from your weekly / diary. What did you do, what tasks
decided who you met with, who prevented you from working, how much time did it take? Divide what you have done into the four quadrants of the Eisenhower Matrix, indicating the time spent.

Calculate how the time was distributed over the four quadrants?

Processing of results.

Quadrant I - those cases that require immediate resolution. They are both urgent and important, and so
and shout about themselves: “Do it! Make up your mind! Answer the letter! Meeting! Prepare a report!

What did you receive?
If the I quadrant has grown disproportionately, this means that dates and dates control you, not you your life. Maybe you just dragged everything to the last limit? After all, it is very possible that the tasks of quadrant II, which are also important, but not urgent, have become urgent because you did not have time to complete them on time? You lack a strategic approach to the problem. The manager, and just a person who finds himself in such a situation, is under the daily sword of Damocles of stress caused by an enduring crisis situation. You don't have the time or energy to think long-term plans, prepare proposals for a new product, your friends, with whom you value relationships so much, have forgotten how you look. You catch up with the departing train, and at one point you will find yourself on an empty platform with a broken heart.

Why?
You set priorities incorrectly, do not know how to delegate responsibilities, do not trust
to your employees, pull all the burdens on yourself. In this state of affairs, it is difficult for you to
count for an increase, because You do not have an opinion, a vision for the future of the company, you are completely busy
important issues today.

What to do?
Learn to delegate responsibilities, educate yourself a deputy, an understudy, if you want, who will replace you if necessary. Prepare a list of duties that your employees can perform instead of you. Review the priority list. Move the center of gravity of your activity to quadrant II.

Golden rule: A crisis is easier to prevent than to resolve.

Quadrant II. Important, but not urgent - great philosophy! If you managed to allocate your time in such a way that quadrant II turned out to be the most filled with cases, you can be sincerely congratulated!

What did you receive?
You perfectly know how to “separate the wheat from the chaff”, concentrate on the main thing, have your own view on everything, because you have enough time to calmly think about current and future projects. You have good business relations with your colleagues, you have someone to turn to with a question and for advice, if necessary.

Why?
Your prioritization system is well suited to your particular activity.
You know how to delegate responsibilities and do not waste time solving other people's problems.

Quadrant III. No matter, but urgent? Insignificant trifles, short-term goals, momentary interests and problems.

What did you receive?
Don't you think that you plug up all the holes? Or did you arrange it yourself? Why are you doing the most unimportant part of the job? Who does everything else for you?

If, in addition, the second place in terms of time spent in your matrix is ​​occupied by quadrant IV, then you are the first candidate for dismissal.

Why?
For some reason, you out of all your official duties selected only the unimportant ones. Moreover, you yourself have determined what is the main thing for you, and what is vanity of vanities. If you yourself admit that you waste time on unimportant tasks, then why do you do this? You have neither clear goals nor plans, both for the near future and for long term. It looks like sabotage, and you yourself will suffer from it first of all.

What to do?
If you are going to look for another job, think first, what recommendation from your current management can you count on with such labor enthusiasm? It's probably better to put things in order at your present place of work, so that your boss will let you go with tears in his eyes and a promise to accept you as soon as you want to come back. To do this, you need to “simply” shift the center of gravity of your affairs to quadrant II, become an indispensable and really necessary employee. To do this, you need to immediately review the list of priorities, schedules for completing tasks, and master all the time-saving techniques. You have nowhere to retreat, you are in a crisis that can end badly!

Quadrant IV. Unimportant and non-urgent matters. What are you paid for? You don't mind spending
your life to do worthless deeds? Comments are superfluous.

"Urgent things are usually not the most important,
and the important ones are not the most urgent.”
D. Eisenhower

A preliminary analysis of your Eisenhower Matrix has shown that people who are striving and achieving success avoid doing things from quadrants III and IV.

If most of your cases are in quadrants I and III, it is useful for you to read the note: Quadrants I and III

In the endless stream of everyday affairs, you can easily get confused, because every day there are more and more of them. Yesterday's unfinished business becomes today's, and what we did not have time to do today is automatically shifted to tomorrow. As a result, so many things can accumulate that you can’t make out later: what has been done, what is in the process, and what else is just waiting in the wings.

Such or detailed situations often occur in people who do not pay due attention to the process of planning their activities. Naturally, skills are not taught at school, and many parents and other people who act as educators in the process of our development often do not really know how to plan their activities themselves, although this is not at all difficult. It just doesn't get the attention it deserves.

However, today there are many excellent planning techniques that allow you to learn how to rationally use your time resource and extract the maximum benefit from this process for yourself. But in this article we will not consider all these techniques, but will give an example of only one, which is distinguished by its simplicity and effectiveness. This technique is called the "Eisenhower Matrix".

The Eisenhower Matrix is ​​one of the most popular time management tools and is used by many people around the world: from ordinary employees and middle managers to CEOs of large firms and world-famous corporations. The founder of this matrix is ​​the 34th President of the United States, Dwight David Eisenhower. As you might guess, this man was very busy and had to do a lot of all sorts of things related to his activities. For this reason, he was engaged in optimizing his work schedule and to-do list. The result of his research was the matrix we are considering.

The meaning of the Eisenhower matrix is ​​mainly to learn how to correctly distribute all your tasks, distinguish between important and urgent, not urgent from the least important, and also to reduce the time to the maximum for doing any business that does not give any significant results. Let's talk about how it all works in practice.

The essence of the Eisenhower matrix

The Eisenhower matrix consists of four quadrants, the basis of which are two axes - this is the axis of importance (vertically) and the axis of urgency (horizontally). As a result, it turns out that each quadrant differs in its qualitative indicators. All tasks and cases are recorded in each of the quadrants, thanks to which an extremely clear and objective picture of what should be done first, what should be done second, and what should not be done at all is formed. All this is quite simple, but it will not be superfluous to give a few explanations in any case.

Quadrant A: important and urgent matters

With ideal planning, this quadrant of the matrix should remain empty, since the appearance of important and urgent cases is an indicator of disorganization and the assumption of a blockage. This part of the schedule fills up for many people due to their inherent laziness and incorrect prioritization. Naturally, at times such cases can appear in every person, but if this happens daily, then it's time to pay attention to.

So, the appearance of cases in the A quadrant should be avoided. And for this, it is only necessary to fulfill the points of the remaining quadrants on time. But if something is still worth entering in the first quadrant, then this:

• Cases, the failure of which adversely affects the achievement of goals
• Things that, if not done, can cause difficulties and troubles
• Cases related to health

It is also important to remember that there is such a thing as "delegation". This means that when there are cases in your A quadrant that can be delegated to someone, this opportunity should definitely be used in order to resolve other important and urgent matters as soon as possible.

Quadrant B: important but not urgent

The second quadrant deserves the most attention because the affairs that are in it are the most priority and promising, and it is from them that the daily tasks of any person should consist. It is noticed that people who are mainly engaged in the affairs of this quadrant achieve in life greatest success get promoted, earn more money have enough free time and live happy and fulfilling lives.

Pay attention also to the fact that the lack of urgency allows you to approach the solution of any problems more deliberately and constructively, and this, in turn, allows a person to reveal his potential to the fullest, independently think over all the nuances of his activity and manage the time frame of his affairs. But here, among other things, you need to remember that things that are in the B quadrant, if they are not done in a timely manner, can easily fall into the A quadrant, becoming even more important and requiring speedy completion.

Experienced time management specialists recommend including in the B quadrant all current affairs related to the main activity, planning and analysis of work, training and, compliance with the optimal schedule and. Those. everything that makes up our daily routine.

Quadrant C: urgent but not important

The activities that are in this quadrant are for the most part distracting and do not bring the person closer to the intended results. Often they just get in the way of focusing on really important tasks and reduce efficiency. The main thing when working with the matrix is ​​not to confuse urgent matters from the C quadrant with urgent matters from the A quadrant. Otherwise, confusion will arise and what should be done first remains in the background. Always remember your own and learn to distinguish the important from the secondary.

Things in the C quadrant include, for example, meetings or negotiations imposed by someone from the side, birthday celebrations of not very close people, sudden chores around the house, elimination of distractions that are not vital but require attention (a vase broke, a microwave broke a stove, a light bulb burned out, etc.), as well as all sorts of other things that do not move you forward, but only slow you down.

Quadrant D: Not Urgent or Important

Tasks related to the last quadrant do not bring any benefit at all. In many cases it is useful not only to deal with them last, but not to deal with them at all. Although you definitely need to know about them, because. they are the time wasters.

Another feature of the cases from this group is also interesting: they are very attractive to many people - these cases are easy to perform and give pleasure, allow you to relax and have a good time. Therefore, resisting the temptation to work out with them can be quite problematic. But it is absolutely necessary to do so.

In the D quadrant, you can write down such things as talking on the phone with friends about something unimportant, unnecessary correspondence or spending time on social networks, watching TV shows and various “stupefying” TV shows, computer games, etc. Of course, every person should periodically relax and somehow entertain himself, but there are more interesting and developing ways for this: reading, visiting gyms and swimming pools, trips to nature, etc. If you can’t or don’t want to completely rid yourself of doing things from the D quadrant, then you need to postpone their implementation at least until the moment when the things from the B and C quadrants are completed, and the time that will be devoted to the affairs of the D quadrant should be minimized. Here the well-known proverb will be appropriate for everyone: “Cause is time, fun is an hour.”

As soon as you master the Eisenhower matrix and learn how to correctly distribute your affairs within it, you will notice that you have quite a lot of new free time, you manage to do everything on time and without haste, all your affairs are in order, goals are achieved one after another, and you yourself are almost always in good mood and cheerful mood. It's all about being organized and focused. Probably, you yourself notice from time to time that disorganized people are always in the cycle of some incomprehensible affairs, they are always busy with something stupid, but “very important”, they look tired and annoyed. Distinctive Features many can be cited. But this is not what is important, but the fact that if you and I do not want to have similar results, then we must act differently. Namely, we must be organized, clearly understand what and when we need to do, and why we are doing all this. And the Eisenhower matrix is ​​great for this.

We wish you good luck and successful mastering your new skill!

Hello! In this article, we will talk about one of the most effective time management tools - the Eisenhower matrix.

Today you will learn:

• What is the Eisenhower Matrix;
• How can the matrix be used in Everyday life(with examples);
• What are some tips to save time.

“The day is long until the evening, if there is nothing to do,” says folk wisdom. Quite different aphorisms are born from busy people who run a race against time: “How would you add a twenty-fifth hour to the day?”.

In conditions of multitasking, sooner or later, every business person faces the question of the proper distribution of time resources. The starting conditions are the same for every inhabitant on the planet - an hour includes sixty minutes for absolutely everyone. But how effectively people organize their time makes a big difference between successful person and eternal loser.

The Eisenhower matrix as a method of organizing time

Time management, or - is the conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities in order to increase their efficiency and productivity.

Eisenhower Matrix is one of the popular time management tools that is used to prioritize business and personal tasks. It is based on the principle of classifying all cases into four categories, depending on their degree of importance and urgency. The matrix is ​​most convenient to use for short-term and medium-term planning.

This approach was pioneered by Dwight David Eisenhower, a World War II Army General and later the 34th President of the United States. The politician has always admired those around him with his ability to keep up with everything.

Once an American searched in vain for some effective way manage time and, not finding it among the existing ones, developed it on his own. The time matrix is ​​still striking in its simplicity and genius, and millions of people around the world use it for planning.

Visually, the priority matrix is ​​divided into four quadrants, where cases fit into categories: important and urgent, important and non-urgent, unimportant and urgent, unimportant and non-urgent.

The user of the matrix is ​​asked to enter all their planned activities in these quadrants. The greatest work happens just when a person makes a choice between these fields, thus deciding which things to do first and which things to do second.

Characterization of quadrants

Quadrant A: important and urgent

In this field, cases should be recorded that relate to priority areas of a person’s life and do not tolerate delay. These areas are usually family, career (for students - study), health and safety.

These cases are consistent with the following statements:

1. Failure to do so soon will significantly distance you from one of your life's long-term goals.

Example. In the near future, you are looking forward to a promotion. The manager asks you to submit a report on the work done as soon as possible. It is important? Yes, since you don't want to miss the chance career growth. This is urgent? Yes, because now is the time to show your diligence.

1. Delays in seeking medical attention can have dire consequences.

Example. You have a toothache. Important? Everything related to health is always important. Urgently? You run the risk of losing a tooth and will not last long on painkillers.

Quadrant B: important and non-urgent

Successful people tend to do most of their work in this quadrant. These are everyday activities that invariably serve the cause of achieving the main goals in all areas of life. They are all important, but there is no rush, as in the case of the A quadrant.

A successful person does not bring his important things to a state of emergency, but does them gradually. He most often has time to deliberately make decisions, brick by brick building the building of his future.

This zone includes all everyday activities that directly relate to priority areas of life: work, family, self-development, health.

They are subject to the same criteria:

• The task must be completed, but it can be postponed for a while if something important and urgent appears.

Example. You are a programmer and must hand in the program you have written by Monday. It's only Thursday, and you've already got everything ready, but you've decided to put your hand in until Friday so you can double-check everything.

Things from the B quadrant, if left unattended, can migrate to the A quadrant. Your goal is to prevent this from happening. It happens that an important matter appears suddenly, for reasons beyond your control. But often we ourselves bring things to this state, ignoring preventive examinations at the doctor and postponing important tasks until the deadline.

Quadrant C: Unimportant and urgent

These things are some distance from your main priorities, but doing them makes your life more comfortable and can serve you well over time.

In this area are meetings and conversations that you go to out of courtesy or out of necessity, including birthdays of not very close people, suddenly appeared household chores, some work tasks.

This quadrant has the following characteristics:

1. Completing this task quickly will help.

Example. You were planning to buy an air conditioner and found out about the sale, which will run for only one day. Important? Not particularly. The world will not collapse if you do not buy an air conditioner cheaper than you planned. Urgently? Yes, the sale is valid for one day only. A nice bonus: an urgent purchase will save a little on the family budget.

1. Indirectly, the performance of these cases may benefit the main goals, although this is not guaranteed.

Example. You are a journalist. You are invited to a banquet, where the editor of the newspaper you are interested in can come. Important? Not really, everything is too vague. Urgently? Yes, because the banquet will not last forever, you need to make a decision - either go or not.

It is likely that you will find someone to delegate the case from this quadrant. Some unimportant urgent matter can be done for you by a spouse, acquaintance, colleague, subordinate.

Quadrant D: Unimportant and non-urgent

All the affairs of this quadrant can be conditionally divided into the actual business and entertainment. Tasks include tasks that ensure your comfort, make you and your life more beautiful (for example, taking care of your appearance), but it may take some time.

For a woman, this may be a visit to a manicurist, for a man, a car wash. Of course, these things are important in themselves, but not in relation to your main areas of life.

The second group includes a pleasant pastime. It is generally considered that there is no benefit from these deeds, they are called "time wasters", they are presented as things that people do at least they would rather not do, and getting rid of them is a laudable goal.

So categorically, you can only talk about bad habits like smoking and the systematic use of strong alcohol. Examples of activities such as social networking, watching light films, hanging out in clubs, playing computer games - all this has the right to be and is necessary for a person if it relaxes him and gives him pleasure.

Firstly, a person is not a robot, he needs to do something just like that, for the soul.

Secondly, unimportant and non-urgent things can be beneficial. Many computer games develop thinking, communication in social networks teaches to express thoughts, dancing in clubs helps to warm up. In addition, it has long been known that a change of activity is the best rest.

The main condition for this quadrant is not to let it take over most of your time and ignore the main things that move you forward in life.

How to apply the Eisenhower matrix in practice

So, after reviewing the theoretical part, you can experience the effect of the matrix on yourself.

1. On the evening before your first day of experimentation, unfold your diary at the appropriate date and draw a four-field spread. Label them as shown in the matrix. In the absence of a diary, you can take a regular sheet. If you always carry a tablet or laptop with you, you can create a matrix in Excel.
2. On a separate sheet, write down in a column all the tasks that you intend to do tomorrow (when you acquire the skill of quickly distributing all the tasks in the matrix, you will no longer need this item).
3. Read the cases one at a time and copy each one into the appropriate quadrant of the matrix. To do this, you need to answer just two questions: is it important? Is it urgent?

1. In the case of the paper version, leave free space in each field - tomorrow you will remember other things to do and add them.
2. Highlight with a marker (color) already completed tasks.
3. At the end of the day, move the unfinished tasks to the next day (be sure to rewrite them on a new spread of the diary or copy them in a new Excel tab - otherwise they will be “lost”).
4. Do not deny yourself the pleasure at the end of the day to look through all the "color" parts of your matrix, that is, all the completed cases. You will feel the satisfaction of a business person whose day was not spent in vain.

An example of a completed Eisenhower matrix

With our example, we will do as we advised in the previous paragraph - first we write out all the cases in a row, and then distribute them in the matrix. In the first-person example, a professional massage therapist would be meditating.

Here is his list of tasks for the day (with commentary to let the reader appreciate the importance and urgency):

• Today 4 massages: at 9 o'clock, at 11 o'clock, at 15 o'clock, at 20 o'clock (I will take care of other things during breaks);
• Go to the accounting department (according to the contract for a massage, I should receive 60% of the cost, but in fact I receive only 50% - find out why);
• Buy cat food (it's good that I looked - there is only one feeding left);
• Visit a friend in the hospital (a close friend broke his arm yesterday, bring him something tasty);
• Call the bank, make a payment for the mortgage (today is the last day when you can pay without a penalty);
• Visit friends for a tent (today is Tuesday, we are planning a family trip on Saturday);
• Go to the pool (the more often I go, the better);
• Buy groceries (there’s something else in the fridge, we’ll last a couple of days);
• Reply to messages on WhatsApp and VKontakte (just conversations);
• Practice English for at least 20 minutes (there are many foreigners among the clients, it would be necessary to improve the language);
• Buy a new gasket for the faucet (the faucet is still dripping, but it is on the verge);
• Go to an appointment with an optometrist (every year, just in case, I go through an examination);
• Get a haircut (the look is still neat, but it’s better not to delay it);
• Throw a book about exercises for the back muscles to a colleague (I promised that I would send it right away as soon as I was at the computer).

	URGENTLY	DO NOT RUSH
IMPORTANT	Today 4 massages: at 9 a.m., at 11 a.m., at 3 p.m., at 8 p.m. Visit a friend in the hospital	Visit friends for a tent (family trip) Go to an appointment with an optometrist Go to accounting Practice English
DOES NOT MATTER	Go to the bank, make a mortgage payment Buy cat food Buy a new faucet gasket Send a book to a colleague	cut your hair Buy products Go to the pool Reply to messages in WhatsApp and VKontakte

Remember: the same thing for different people can inhabit different quadrants of the matrix. For example, for someone to work out their hobby can refer to both important and unimportant things. You and only you can distribute your affairs as you see your life priorities.

Under what conditions will the Eisenhower matrix be useful to you

Some skeptics believe that the Eisenhower matrix is ​​only suitable for managers, while a simple employee, worker or housewife will not be able to use it in practice (which is not true - the matrix is ​​\u200b\u200buniversal, we proved this by taking the case of a masseur as an example, not a businessman).

In reality, the question is not about the possibility or impossibility of using the matrix, but about the expediency of its use.

The Eisenhower system is used to plan for each day. That is, we are not talking about long-term plans (build a house, go on vacation, graduate from university), but about current tasks.

On the one hand, if a person has so few daily tasks that his memory can easily cope with them, there is no need to use the table. For example, all the plans of an employee for the day are to serve their eight hours at work and drink beer with friends in the evening. This table is not for such people.

On the other hand, if a person has goals in all aspects of his life - in work, study, self-development, family, hobbies, if he strives to be the master of his time, and not go with it - such a person always has a lot of daily tasks. And since he does not want to lose sight of them, this matrix is ​​for him.

The Eisenhower matrix is ​​no panacea for the eternal lack of time. It's more of a mini tutorial on prioritization.

Don't be surprised if you find it difficult to assign cases to quadrants at first. The moment you think and do it, you are learning. And learning something valuable always involves some effort.

Do not despair - after working with the table for several days in a row, you will acquire a skill that will turn into a skill. Subsequently, the prioritization will reach automatism.

So let's sum it up.

The Eisenhower Matrix is ​​for people like you if:

• You constantly have to choose which task to take on first;
• You are ready to get to know yourself better, ready to honestly answer questions like “what is really important to me?”;
• You want to do as much as possible - definitely more than you do now;
• You are ready to deal with such a quality of yours as procrastination - chronic postponing things “for later”.

Perhaps you are already good at managing your time.

Read the statements below and ask yourself if they are true for you. If the vast majority of points do not suit you, it is advisable for you to master time management techniques.

• You always have a clear to-do list for the day;
• You respond to business emails in a timely manner;
• You do not take work home and almost never stay late after the end of the working day;
• You do not allow telephone calls, visits from visitors and social networks significantly distract you from the main tasks;
• You do not do the work for your subordinates because you do not think that only you can do it really well;
• At the end of the day, you feel almost as energized as at the beginning.

If all the previous points seem logical to you, then the last one may cause an incredulous smile: “Yes, you are joking! A squeezed lemon feels more energized than I do at the end of a work day.” However, there is a large number of people who not only do not get tired, but also feel a surge of energy. And there is no secret here.

We do not get tired of the amount of work done, but of stupid, disorderly actions, senseless throwing and feeling helpless in conditions of chronic time pressure.

Of course, sometimes we cannot foresee everything. And our well-proportioned plan can be shaken due to a sudden shutdown of office equipment, a late client or a truant employee. Leave that aside for now.

The first thing to work on is how not to be a source of chaos for yourself, and then you can think about the impact of external unforeseen circumstances.

1. Clean up your desktop from documents that you no longer work with. If they are not needed very often, put them in the closet. Not needed at all - send to the basket. In a pile of papers, you can hardly find the very sheet that you will spend long minutes searching for, irritated by fruitless efforts. Note that the desks of successful businessmen look like no one is working on them: most of their surface is not occupied by anything.
2. Get yourself a diary and don't part with it. It is impossible to remember everything, and business people have long understood the need to write down everything - the dates of meetings, business, questions for reflection. Mobile phones and laptops with their calendars are often used, but a paper diary will never become outdated - if only because it cannot break or run out of power.
3. Plan the most important thing at the time of the peak of your daily activity. We are all human beings, and even the toughest members of our species are overcome by sleep. Resisting your biorhythms is a waste of time, you will still lose. What you do in the afternoon in an hour, in the evening, with accumulated fatigue, will take you twice as much time. Therefore, do not postpone an urgent report until late in the evening, do not start important conversations before going to bed - both you and you will suffer from this approach.
4. Don't overload yourself. It's not just that your productivity will drop. With a merciless rhythm, you will definitely “burn out”, and your body, without your consent, will arrange a rest for itself, sending you to a hospital bed. This is where you will lose all your saved time.

Treat yourself like a thoroughbred horse - this, of course, is a strong animal, but which of the owners would dare to drive it with a frantic gallop?

1. Don't "slow down" projects and deeds. Remember the famous phrase that the best is the enemy of the good? Do you feel like the more you test your project, the better it gets? It is very important here not to “overdo” the matter, otherwise you risk feeling chronic fatigue from the inability to achieve the ideal. Do not strive for the ideal - these actions will waste your time.
2. Don't try to be great at everything. It takes years to become an expert in any field. It is better to stand out in one thing than to be average in everything. This is what Ocean's 11 is about. It is important to have a team where everyone is good at something, then you can easily delegate things.

Every day we have to make hundreds of decisions, and the higher the position, the more decisions we have to make. How do you separate the important from the unimportant? One simple yet productive way is the Eisenhower Square, also known as the Eisenhower Matrix. This system, with , works great for both daily and long-term planning. Below you will learn about the author of this technique (he was an outstanding person), as well as about the features of using the Eisenhower Square technique itself.

Dwight Eisenhower has lived one of the most productive lives you can imagine.

Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, serving two terms from 1953 to 1961. During his tenure, he initiated programs that led directly to the development of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, Internet Launch (OACRA), outer space(TCHA8A), and peaceful use alternative sources Energy (Atomic Energy Law).

Before becoming president, Eisenhower was a five-star general (the highest rank), served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, and was responsible for planning and executing the invasion of North Africa, France, and Germany.

In addition, he served as president of Columbia University, became the first Supreme Commander of NATO, and in doing so somehow found time to pursue his hobbies: golfing and oil painting.

Eisenhower had an incredible ability to maintain his performance not only for weeks or months, but for many decades. And for this reason, his methods of time management, task management and productivity have been studied by many people.

His most famous performance strategy is known as the Eisenhower Square. This is a simple decision making tool that you can start using right away. Let's talk about how to be more productive and how the Eisenhower strategy works.

The Eisenhower Square: How to Be More Productive

Eisenhower's strategy for taking action and organizing tasks is very simple. It uses a decision matrix (in the picture below), in which you will distribute your actions based on four possibilities:

Urgent and important (tasks that should be done immediately).

Important but not urgent (tasks that can be scheduled to be done later).

Urgent but not important (tasks that can be delegated to someone else).

Not urgent and not important (tasks that can be eliminated).

The great thing about this matrix is ​​that it can be used both for making long-term plans for productivity ("How should I spend my time every week?") and for small daily tasks ("What should I do today?") .

Note: I created the Eisenhower Square template as a spreadsheet. You can download this template for your personal use at the bottom of the article. (By the way, I translated this template into Russian, and if you want to get it - .

The difference between urgent and important

Important is rarely urgent, and urgent is rarely important.

— Dwight Eisenhower

Urgent tasks are those tasks that you need to quickly respond to: letters, phone calls, texts, news. Meanwhile, in the words of Brett McKay: “Important tasks are tasks that contribute to our long-term mission, values ​​and goals.”

Separating these urgent and important things is easy enough to do once, but doing it all the time can be extremely difficult. The reason I like the Eisenhower Square method is that it provides a clear framework for making decisions on an ongoing basis. And like everything in life, consistency is the tricky part.

Here are some other observations I made using this method:

Liquidation before optimization

A few years ago, I was reading about programming and came across an interesting quote:

"There is no faster code than no code"

— Kevlin Henney

In other words, the fastest way to get something done - to have the computer read lines of code or cross a completed task off your to-do list - is to eliminate that task altogether. no more fast way do something than not do it at all. Of course, this is not a reason to be lazy, but a suggestion to force yourself to do it. difficult decisions and delete any task that does not lead you to your mission, values, or goals.

Too often we use performance, time management, and optimization techniques as an excuse to avoid the really important question: “Should I actually be doing this?”. It's much easier to stay busy and tell yourself that you just need to be a little more efficient or "work a little later tonight" than to eliminate a task that you're just comfortable doing. But in fact it is not the most effective method use of your time. (Personally, I like the test phrase "Are you busy or are you productive?").

As Tim Ferriss says, “Stay busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”

I find the Eisenhower method particularly useful because it makes me question whether the action is really necessary, which ends up moving the task to the Delete quadrant rather than mindlessly repeating them. And frankly, if you just destroy all the things that you spend your time on every day, then you probably won't need any advice on how to be more productive at the jobs that really matter.

Will it help me reach my goal?

One final note: it can be very difficult for you to eliminate redundant actions if you are not sure which direction you are working in. In my experience, there are two questions that can help clarify the whole process of the Eisenhower method.

These two questions:

1. What am I working for? What am I working on? In what direction am I working?
2. What are the core values ​​I strive for in my life?

These are the questions I asked myself in my Annual Review and in my Progress Report. The answers to these questions helped me clarify the categories for certain tasks in my life. After that, deciding which tasks to do and which tasks to delete becomes much easier, because you will understand what is important to you.

The Eisenhower method is not ideal strategy, but for myself I realized that this useful tool making decisions to improve productivity and eliminating tasks that take up mental energy, time, and rarely lead me to my goal. I hope you find this method useful.

Original article: http://jamesclear.com/eisenhower-box

P.S.: A little bonus: the Eisenhower Square template: I have russified the Eisenhower Square template into a spreadsheet that you can download and use whenever you want to improve your productivity and eliminate wasted time. You can get it by contacting me and I will send you a copy of the table right away.

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What is the Eisenhower Dwight David Matrix? How did the 34th President of the United States plan the time? What principle of organization allowed to cope with a huge number of cases? I will tell about all this now.

Time management is based on the principle of planning. And the main thing in planning is the prioritization - which things should be started first and which ones should be done later.

Very simple and amazing effective methodology used by the 34th President of the United States, later it was named after his name - the Eisenhower Dwight David principle. Everyone understands that the president has a lot to do and the fate of millions of people depends on the correct planning of the time of one person.

How did President Eisenhower act?

That's how - He divided all tasks into important and urgent. To better understand the method, let's draw the Dwight David Eisenhower matrix by dividing the square into 4 equal parts. As a result, we get 4 squares. Now let's sign each with the following names: Important, not important, urgent, not urgent.

The essence of the Eisenhower principle is that when prioritizing, you must first complete all the important and urgent things. Then important and non-urgent. Next, unimportant urgent. And if there is time, finally unimportant and non-urgent.

What for?

What gives the application of the Eisenhower principle? Why draw a matrix? Why can't you do everything without any problems?

Probably, everyone was faced with a lack of time - when you want to do everything planned, but it doesn’t work out, every day gives us surprises and you have to adjust your plans, giving up the planned vacation, new work opportunities, etc.

It is impossible to predict the unplanned, which means that whether we like it or not, some plans have to be canceled. But... What if we do the main tasks first, and leave the less significant ones for later. From which it is not so a pity to refuse? For example, we will spend time with the family instead of meeting with a client who is unlikely to agree to cooperation.

This is the answer to the question: "why sort cases." We just do the main thing, and postpone the secondary and become more successful and productive in life. After all, urgent does not mean important, and vice versa.

1 square: Important and urgent

These include urgent matters, failure to comply with which may lead to negative consequences. We start all things from this section, because these are the most significant tasks for us, and besides, they are urgent. This section includes: "Urgent operation", "Unscheduled meetings", "deadline in the delivery of the project."

The main thing is that this box, ideally, should be empty, since most important tasks are not urgent at first and, with proper planning, they can be done before they become urgent. All tasks in this square appear for 2 reasons:

- dependent on us (internal reasons), then what we can influence and this is the largest share in most cases. For example: lack of professionalism, motivation, strength, etc. In general, we can remove this reason on our own;

- beyond our control (external causes): When we cannot influence them, for example, force majeure, sudden pain, urgent request for help, etc. Ideally, with proper planning, only these reasons should fall into the important and urgent square.

In addition, we all understand that it is not always possible to allocate as much time as necessary for urgent matters. An example from life is passing exams, if you prepare on the last day, then there may simply not be enough time for preparation. In addition, work in a rush mode is exhausting, worsens the mental and physical condition. Therefore, all important tasks should be completed before they become urgent, that is, working with the square is important and not urgent.

2nd square: Important and not urgent

Regular completion of all tasks from this square is an indicator of your success and productivity. This square includes cases that can wait, but there will be serious negative consequences from their failure.

An important task differs from an unimportant one in that the consequences of not completing them are different.. The more important the task, the stronger the negative consequences of its failure. Therefore, we give preference to the implementation of important tasks first and only then urgent ones.

Ideally, all important tasks, both urgent and non-urgent, should be completed in full. Among the cases from this area, one can note such as: tasks for personal development, health care, for example: see a doctor in a timely manner and prevent a disease, master basic skills in English for promotion at work, etc., as a rule, these are key tasks that can make a big difference in your life.

We all understand that in most cases it is impossible to manage everything planned. If only because unforeseen circumstances arise that make serious adjustments to the plans. Given this fact, it is better to do important tasks on which your life depends heavily than unimportant tasks. That is why it is so important to sort tasks according to the Eisenhower rule.

When we correctly distribute cases and start work with the most important ones, there are fewer rush jobs, i.e. we have time to get things done before they become urgent. And this is very important, after all, when there is not always enough time for urgent matters - they turn out to be unfinished and we test our nerves, trying to meet the deadline. At the same time, with regular work with the square, it is important and not urgent, you can devote exactly as much time to each task as it requires, as a result, the number of rush jobs and stressful situations will decrease, and the quality of work will increase. By analogy from ordinary life it is better to do the prevention of the disease in a timely manner than to start it and in the end experience severe pain and serious consequences in the future.

3rd square: It doesn't matter, urgently

Urgent does not mean important, many urgent things are better not to do if because of them you do not have time for important things. To correctly understand which business is more important, simply ask the question: "What will happen if this is not done." If the negative consequences are minimal, then the matter is unimportant and it should be started after the completion of more significant tasks, if not completed, there will be more serious negative consequences. Unimportant tasks include the following: a colleague called and asked for help in an insignificant task, you are offered to participate in a social network. survey or just a friend came to chat about life.

Minus urgent matters is that they interfere with effective work, because you:

Forced to interrupt important tasks;

Against the background of urgency, you begin to worry, and emotions prevent you from making the right decisions.

For example, you are working on a large project on which your career growth and company income depend, and at that moment colleagues call you and ask you to urgently call, print, send a document by mail, etc. Of course, you need to help colleagues, but everything has its time. First you need to do important things, and secondary things later, even if they are urgent. Just tell your colleagues that they are currently busy, and when you complete work on an important matter, call back.

If you try to keep up with all urgent matters, then life can turn into a constant time pressure, and because of the turmoil, you will worry more and less time will be able to devote to important tasks that greatly affect your life.

4 square is not important and not urgent

This is the very last to-do list that you should start, because it includes the most unnecessary tasks.

But even the most unnecessary things can also be divided into 2 parts:

1. Life trifle, such things still have value, but only if you have done all the other more important tasks from 3 squares. And what is the value? For example, dismantling the blockage on the mezzanine - it seems like a trifle, but nice, or changing a leaking faucet in the kitchen, strengthening the table so that it does not stagger. In general, such tasks create your comfort, improve your mood, so you should try to get to the 4th square in order to live more harmoniously and fully.

But if you do these little things before the more important tasks from the last 3 squares are done, then this will not bring proper satisfaction.

2. Doing bullshit. Computer games, social media networks, watching TV, drinking - all this only takes precious time. Many will say, but does it help to relax? Yes, no doubt, any bullshit activity relaxes, but not as well as a healthy vacation. A computer, TV cannot convey such strong emotions, tactile feelings, smells and other sensations as in real life. Since the computer and TV use fewer senses, the speed of recovery, i.e. rest, decreases. Alcohol is also an inefficient way to relax, because in addition to the negative impact on health, after such a rest in quotation marks - a waste, headache and other troubles.

Well, that's all bad habits are a waste of time and should be abandoned entirely, but this is the ideal case. In reality, every person has bad habits, because fighting them takes time, so we put all such garbage as computer games, TV, alcohol, etc. into the square no matter and not urgently at the very bottom of the to-do list.

The Practice of Applying the Eisenhower Matrix by Dwight David

Let's draw 4 Eisenhower squares, denote each square with letters:

A. Important and urgent (red);

B. Important and not urgent (green);

V. No matter and urgent(blue);

G. Not important and not urgent (white).

Let's start doing things alphabetically, i.e., first the tasks of point "A", then "B", "C" and at the end "D". Until we complete the tasks of square "A", we do not proceed to "B". Then, until we do point “B”, we do not start tasks from “C”, etc. In general, we work sequentially step by step without changing the order.

And now to practice, let's say we have the following list of incoming cases:

Now let's sort the list of incoming tasks, put next to each item, the letter of the square to which this task can be attributed.

Now you know where to start in order to have time to do the main thing. Just do things in Quadrant A first, then B, then C and D if you have time.

It is important to evaluate the degree of importance not in the mind, but on a piece of paper, because when there are more than 7+-2 tasks, the prioritization can be erroneous, since our brain is not designed for such operations in the mind. It is about 7+-2 cases that we can store in memory, the rest is forgotten. The tasks written on a piece of paper are much easier and faster, and most importantly, you can sort them more accurately, do not spare time for recording.

You can also rewrite the list in squares for clarity, especially as soon as you start using the Eisenhower method, but this is not necessary.

As you already understand, the essence of working with the Eisenhower principle is the division of tasks and concentration on the first two squares.

Working in accordance with the Eisenhower principle will help reduce the number of rush jobs at work and you will become more productive.

P.S. If you have any difficulties or questions about the article you read, as well as on the topics: Psychology (bad habits, experiences, etc.), sales, business, time management, etc., ask me, I will try to help. Skype consultation is also possible.

P.P.S. You can also take an online training "How to get 1 hour extra time". Write comments, your additions;)

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