Urgent/Important Matrix

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Michael Burnstein, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Former United States President Dwight Eisenhower used this tool to organize his tasks. He is quoted as saying, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

INSTRUCTIONS:
Take a blank piece of paper and divide it into 4 quadrants:
At the top of each quadrant label it as follows:
1 (top left) URGENT/IMPORTANT: Crisis
2 (top right) NON-URGENT/IMPORTANT: Goals and planning.
3 (bottom left) URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT: Interruptions.
4 (bottom right) NON-URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT: Distractions.

THE CORE IDEA
We spend too much time dealing with interruptions (Quadrant 3) and distractions (Quadrant 4), and not enough time on goals and planning (Quadrant 2). The result is that we feel stressed, overwhelmed and spend too much time in crisis or fire-fighting mode (Quadrant 1).

URGENT-IMPORTANT MATRIX OVERVIEW

QUADRANT 1: CRISES – URGENT AND IMPORTANT
Examples: An important client complains they still haven’t received their order, a deadline is approaching for a project and you’re nowhere near finished, your electricity is cut-off due to unpaid bills, you must take an urgent trip to the dentist for something that has been bothering you for a while.

QUADRANT 2: GOALS AND PLANNING – NOT URGENT AND IMPORTANT
Examples: Reviewing priorities and tasks, working on major projects, home maintenance, booking health appointments ahead of time, budgets, paying bills, building/maintaining important relationships at work/home, exercising and eating well.

QUADRANT 3: INTERRUPTIONS – URGENT AND NOT IMPORTANT
Examples: Unimportant phone-calls/meetings, some email, other people’s priorities.

QUADRANT 4: DISTRACTIONS – NOT URGENT AND NOT IMPORTANT
Examples: Constantly checking email, social media, excessive TV, internet or computer games, self-critical thoughts, gossip/idle chatting.

MAKE IT PERSONAL AND MEASURABLE
OK, There are two ways to do this:
1.(Less accurate but still good)…Towards the end of your work day, review your day and fill in ALL your activities, placing them in each quadrant with a time estimate spent on each activity. You may want to do this for a few days…and you might want a BIG piece of paper :-)

2. (More accurate but more annoying)… Do the above every hour for a day (or more if you want). Fill in this matrix at the end of each hour. Set your alarm on your phone to go off each hour and spend 2 mins filling out your last hours activities (all of them)! Include approx. time spent on each activity.

After a day or 3 days or week of this:

REVIEW
Which quadrant do you spend most time in? Are you surprised when they look at the percentages? How does that feel?

Quadrant 1 – Crises: People who spend most time in crises usually feel stressed and overwhelmed.

Explore: Is dealing with crises a necessary part of your job? Do you enjoy the drama on some level? How is this impacting your health and relationships?

Quadrant 2 – Goals and Planning: People who spend most time here feel in control, are clear on where they’re going and may even be relaxed in their jobs.

Explore: How they could be even more effective? Are they relationship-building for their careers or when crises do happen? Are they enjoying themselves enough? Do they need some interruptions and distractions? Check in: is all this planning and goal setting in itself a distraction??

Quadrant 3 – Interruptions: People spending a lot of time here are frustrated, stressed and feel like they never get anything done.

Explore: How does saying yes to others impact them and the value they add? How could you say no to others? How could you carve out uninterrupted chunks of time to work on their important projects?

Quadrant 4 – Distractions: People spending a lot of time here are often demotivated, may have low self-esteem, and are usually stressed or frustrated with themselves.

Explore: What are your priorities? How could you find purpose and clarity? What do you need to get inspired? How could you say no to your self? How much fun are you having outside of work?

SUMMARY
My goal in sharing this tool with you is to help you be more successful by being clear on what really matters.

FOLLOW UP (great areas for coaching):

Are you aligning your career and/or life with your values?
Are you in the habit of regular task planning and prioritizing?
Are you prioritizing yourself over others?
Is your current work meaningful?
Where are you sabotaging yourself and where should you be establishing healthy new habits/a new routine?

WRAP UP
How would you like to spend your time differently? How would your life be different if you managed your time more effectively? What is your biggest learning from this exercise? What do you think will help you most?

Plan at least one action you can implement right away to move in towards how you want to be. Enjoy this powerful tool!