Deciding What's Important

In the contemporary world, we are recipients of a seemingly endless stream of notifications and messages that not only distract our attention and workflow, but also make it challenging to distinguish what is truly important. Treating all interruptions and requests with equal importance is a sure-fire way to increase unnecessary stress and slow down progress towards our ultimate goals. 

The Eisenhower Matrix is a useful method to prioritise our time and energy to maximise end results. By dividing activities according to urgency and importance, we can make better decisions as to where we direct our focus. The matrix shows clearly those tasks that are both urgent and important (quadrant 1), less urgent but still important (quadrant 2), urgent but not important (quadrant 3) and then not urgent nor important (quadrant 4).

Urgent Activities require immediate attention, and

Important Activities contribute to the longer-term vision and mission.

Once you have allocated your activities into the relevant quadrants, you can see which items should be done now, done later, delegated, or eliminated.

Once you have allocated your activities into the relevant quadrants, you can see which items should be done now, done later, delegated, or eliminated.

Use this tool to map out your activities so that you can manage your time more effectively and improve productivity. There is also a handy video you can watch to give you a better understanding of how it works.