BLOG NO.386
EISENHOWER MATRIX
History. The Eisenhower Matrix is named after the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served in office from 1953 to 1961. He was the only American military general who got elected to President post.
The Eisenhower Matrix is commonly known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, the Eisenhower Box, or the time management matrix. It is a task-prioritization tool developed from a quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower that helps categorize tasks into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance to improve productivity and decision-making.
Dwight had to make tough decisions continuously of the many tasks he should focus on each day. This finally led him to invent the world-famous Eisenhower principle, which today helps us prioritize by urgency and importance.
The president who was required to decide something everyday told First time 4 Ds of managing the time. The 4 Ds are
Delete
Delegate
Defer
Do
This quick and simple method makes sure you use your time more effectively .
The fifth D is for Discipline and it important though not part of matrix ,the president stated.
FURTHER ELABORATION
Any activity or work we do can be categorised in 4 types.
Important and urgent
Important but not urgent
Not important but urgent
Not important and not urgent
An activity which is important to us may not be important to others. Here one has to be clear about what is important and urgent to oneself.
If one has to prioritize the activities then
Important and urgent activities must be done ,Important and not urgent work should be scheduled ,(Deferred). Not important but urgent activities should be delegated and neither urgent nor important activities should be deleted .
This sounds very logical. The four paragraphs below give some examples of types of activities we perform.
There is no choice but to do important and urgent things because if they are not done consequences can be severe and taxing so we give highest priority to them. Examples are activities related to meeting target dates when the end date is very close. Making payments of the bills for which the last date is today or arranging the things when the guests are about to visit.
Examples of important but not urgent activitied are house keeping ,structured planning ,budgeting,or acquiring new skills to help us improve our efficiency and effectiveness .. People who spend more time performing activities which are important but not urgent are most successful people.
If we postpone to do activities which are in this category more often , because they are not urgent , then a stage comes when those activities become urgent and we are forced to do them without any choice.
Examples of not important but urgent activities are : picking the ringing phone or attending the door bell or talking to neighbor while we come across. These activities happen out of courtesy or certain obligations of staying in the society. If they are not done we will be stamped as irresponsible or rude.
Not important and not urgent activities are those which either entertain us to some extend us or help us relax our minds.
Examples could be watching a cricket match for 6 hours on the TV or general chit- chatting in the group for long time. These are time wasters. Entertainment is essential but it shouldnot be addiction …persons who relax too often and for long durations are considered lazy.
Like 4Ds of time management based on importance and urgency there are also 4Ps !
The 4 Ps of Time Management—Prioritize, Plan, Prepare, and Perform —constitute a framework for
increasing productivity
and
reducing stress.
They involve
- Identifying high-value tasks,
2 Scheduling the task
3, Organizing resources to reduce friction,
and
4 Executing with focus to achieve goals.
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