Refined Eisenhower Matrix
Recently I've started making notes on my cork board to have an overview on the current state of affairs. At first I distributed notes pretty chaotic on the board, but soon I understood there needs to be a structure: some to-dos were more important than others. I thought about how to group my tasks effectively and soon Eisenhower matrix came to my mind, which I had come across in the past. So I decided to use it and see, how well it will suit my needs.
However, it didn't take long until I've realized that it wasn't exactly so comfortable for me as I would expect it to be. Next, I immediately decided to adjust it to better serve my needs in accordance with task's categorization. Here I want to share a system which was made up by myself and turned out to be effective for me then. Be aware, however, that it's just a refined version of Eisenhower matrix, not something totally new; its goal is to address contemporary needs of efficient planning better.
Before I present my solution, I think it makes sense to introduce the famous Eisenhower Matrix to those of you who may hear about it first time.
As you see, the layout is pretty simple: there is a coordinate plane with two axes labeled “Urgency” and “Importance”. As you move along one in the direction of the corresponding arrow, the parameter rises in value. Basically, with the help of the matrix you can divide all your tasks on 4 categories, according to 4 quadrants on the plane. Let me go into detail about each one.
- DO is quadrant number 1; it's a group of tasks which are important and urgent simultaneously. As the name of this category suggests, you should do them on your own and as soon as possible.
- SCHEDULE groups tasks which are important in the long term, but are not urgent. However, they are worthy enough to get them done by yourself as well.
- Tasks which fall under the category DELEGATE aren't that important, but they are urgent. The Eisenhower Matrix suggests you give them to somebody else.
- Lastly, all tasks which are found in the 4th quadrant IGNORE are exactly that: neglectable. They are neither important nor urgent. It is suggested to not pursue them unless you have all other categories empty.
Note: I haven't provided you with examples yet, which I am going to do after the short discussion of this concept and presentation of what I came up with.
Now, the concept itself, as I've mentioned earlier, is pretty simple, and it is generally easy to determine the category under which a particular task falls. Nevertheless, if you think properly about it, some questions may arise to you. When I started using it, these questions were all of the same nature: it wasn't exactly clear how to sort some tasks.
To make it more tangible for you, I would like to share two of the issues I highlighted after one week of use:
- Quadrant 4: what kind of tasks do fall under this category?
If you are supposed to ignore them, why would you put them on your board all together? - Quadrant 3: all of the urgent tasks resulted into being important to me.
Further: unless you are a manager or an executive, you won't have always an opportunity to assign tasks to people who would get them done for you.
With the 4th one, you end up with one section of your strategic board being totally unused. Wouldn’t it be more useful to eliminate this kind of tasks at all and concentrate instead on those which are on the board? For me, a task cannot be not important: otherwise it’s just not a task.
The issue with the 3rd one is basically out of experience which, I believe, is not just my own, but could be confirmed by large number of people.
Overall, both quadrants resulted in being impracticable for me.
After I figured out what was disturbing me and prevented for using the framework efficiently, I was able to refine it a little bit and adjust to my needs, though the core design remained almost the same. And, even being created for my individual use, I believe all people can use just as efficiently for your own better structured daily life as I do. Here we go:
I called it “S-Matrix”. But first, let me comment what I've changed.
- I removed the axes and added a bent curve instead, which may first appear unclear to you. At its core, it was done to remove unsureness about what priority does a specific task have.
- I decided to use quadrant's numbers to indicate the priority of the problem that needs to be solved, and so the whole system reflects just one parameter at its core: importance.
- I've changed names of the categories to summarize the tasks falling under each one.
Everything else, including quadrant structure, their numbers and allocation stayed same. Now let us dive deeper into the intuition behind each change.
You no longer need to differentiate between urgency and importance, struggling to choose between different categories. Moreover, you have a clear indicator of category’s priority with relation to one another: 1st quadrant collects tasks which are the most important, all others follow it in terms of importance as the bent curve suggests. Now for you to make it more obvious, I've came up with some examples which will help you understand the sense behind this refined system better.
- Quadrant 1: CORE
Tasks of first importance, both urgent and of great matter to you. Usually, they represent your main field of activity, be it your job, your studies or even your personal life. Also, you will most likely need to do them as soon as possible. Examples include: prepare for an exam (it can be urgent, if the exam is tomorrow, but also when you still have plenty of time before it, since it's your core activity during university), get report done (same here: the deadline can either be soon or very soon, it won't matter if you are an employee), or decide on travel destination with your spouse. - Quadrant 2: STRATEGY
These are strategic tasks which cannot be done at once, but rather need to be consecutively executed over a substantial period of time to achieve long-term success. In this sense, it seems that they can rather be described as complex objectives with underlying structure of simple tasks. An example could be losing weight, finding a spouse, getting a job and so on. - Quadrant 3: ASSIGNMENTS
Collects tasks which are not that important to you, but what you rather have to do for others. It includes particular job assignments if you are a student and work is not your core field of activity, some things to be done for the club or a community you are currently active in, or any small tasks which your friends, your family or anybody else in your life asks you to accomplish for them. - Quadrant 4: AD HOC
This is the zone of quick, short tasks, that can usually be done fast and at once. It's expected to attach and detach to-dos quite frequently here, since most of the tasks are part of routine and are simple but boring in nature. Here goes: getting some groceries, changing cloth item's size, read an article, make a call etc.
As you see, both quadrants 1 and 2 have same logic as that of Eisenhower Matrix. That basically means grouping tasks which are very important, either in short (Q1) or in long term (Q2). The other two, however, allow for a completely new approach towards sorting tasks which seem to not matter so much to you, or are too simple to worry about. Because, and hopefully you will agree with me, there are no tasks which are not important at all. If you don't do something as similar as buying groceries today and tomorrow, thinking that it's not as important as your current deadlines, you may end up starving next day before you find out that it's a holiday and all shops are closed 🤪
