The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple prioritization tool that sorts tasks along two axes — urgent/not urgent and important/not important — into four quadrants.
The idea
The matrix takes its name from a line often attributed to U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower — “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important” — though historians note the attribution is disputed. The four quadrants are: Important & Urgent (do now), Important & Not Urgent (schedule), Not Important & Urgent (delegate), and Not Important & Not Urgent (drop). Most people default to reacting to whatever feels urgent, which crowds out the important-but-not-urgent work — like planning, learning, and relationships — that compounds over time.
When to use it
- A to-do list has grown unmanageable and everything feels equally pressing.
- Deciding what to delegate versus handle personally.
- Reviewing a week or quarter to check whether important-but-not-urgent work is being neglected.
How to apply it
- List current tasks and commitments.
- Place each into one of the four quadrants.
- Do quadrant-1 items now, schedule time for quadrant-2 items, delegate quadrant-3 items, and eliminate quadrant-4 items.
- Periodically re-sort, since urgency changes but importance usually doesn’t.
Watch out for
Urgency is often self-inflicted through poor planning or other people’s poor planning; the matrix works best combined with actually protecting time for quadrant 2. It’s also a coarse tool — for complex projects it’s a starting filter, not a full planning method.
Related models
- First Things First — the broader principle of prioritizing importance over urgency.
- The One Thing — a complementary focusing question for choosing what matters most.
- Prioritization 8020 Pareto — another lens for deciding where effort pays off most.
Sources
Commonly attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower; popularized as a time-management tool by Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.