Ditch Distractions with the Eisenhower Matrix
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Ditch Distractions with the Eisenhower Matrix
Jimi Abbabiyi
18 July 2023
4 min read
Jimi Abbabiyi
18 July 2023
4 min read
Discover how the Eisenhower Matrix helps you cut through the noise and focus on the tasks that matter.
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Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the number of tasks on your to-do list? Sadly this kind of work overload isn't uncommon today; it hurts our productivity and can impact us mentally and emotionally, leading to stress and burnout.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the number of tasks on your to-do list? Sadly this kind of work overload isn't uncommon today; it hurts our productivity and can impact us mentally and emotionally, leading to stress and burnout.
That's why we're offering a free trial of Priority Pro for monday.com. Priority Pro brings the Eisenhower Matrix to your monday.com boards, making it easy to identify which tasks need your focus and which belong in the trash.
Five-star general and US president Dwight D Eisenhower understood the challenge of juggling a lot of commitments and famously said:
"I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent."
This quote birthed the Eisenhower Matrix: the time-tested framework that makes decision-making easy.
What is the Eisenhower Matrix?
The Eisenhower Priority Matrix is a simple but effective decision-making tool. The matrix is split into four sections (quadrants) that rank tasks by urgency and importance.
The Eisenhower Priority Matrix assigns a different priority level depending on which quadrant your task falls into.
Each quadrant assigns a different action for your task:
- Urgent and Important: These are critical and take priority over all others. Do these first.
- Examples: Meeting a critical project deadline, resolving a customer complaint that needs immediate attention
- Examples: Meeting a critical project deadline, resolving a customer complaint that needs immediate attention
- Important but Not Urgent: These can wait for now—schedule time to address them.
- Examples: Long-term strategic planning, building relationships with important clients
- Examples: Long-term strategic planning, building relationships with important clients
- Urgent but Not Important: These need immediate action but don't help your long-term goals. Delegate them or outsource them (if you can).
- Examples: Routine administrative tasks, non-essential calls
- Examples: Routine administrative tasks, non-essential calls
- Not Urgent and Not Important: Ditch these and free up space for more meaningful work.
- Examples: Reorganising your email inbox, unnecessary meetings
Assigning tasks to each quadrant makes it simple to visualise where you should focus your energy at work, helping you drop distractions that don't matter.
Is the Eisenhower Matrix effective?
The research says yes! According to research by Acuity Training, the Eisenhower Priority Matrix is the best time management tool. Users said they felt in control of their work at least four days a week.
Prioritise tasks in monday.com
Priority Pro brings an intuitive Eisenhower Matrix template to your monday.com board, syncing with the tasks in your Main Table.
Just drag and drop items into the right quadrant, and the app automatically scores the priority for you. No more weighing up which task you should start with.
Just drag and drop items into the right quadrant, and the app automatically scores the priority for you. No more weighing up which task you should start with.
Take control of your tasks today:
An Eisenhower Priority Matrix gives you a fresh perspective on your monday.com workload. With a powerful decision-making tool at your fingertips, it's easy to focus on what matters.
An app that's flexible, highly visual, user-friendly, and built to save you time? We think Eisenhower would approve.
Take control of your workweek
When you can visualise which tasks matter, you can say goodbye to anything that won't benefit your long-term goals. In short, you take back control of your work.
A manageable workload is vital to feeling happy and motivated at work. And if this approach benefited the Commander in Chief, the Eisenhower Priority Matrix could do wonders for you too.
And what if you don't want to measure your tasks by importance and urgency, there's good news! You can customise Priority Pro to fit you. If you want to create a SWOT analysis, an Action Priority matrix, or something else altogether, Priority Pro makes strategy and decision-making easier.
Discover a better way to manage your time in monday.com - try Priority Pro for free 👇
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Written by
Jimi Abbabiyi
Senior Product Marketing Manager
With over 10 years in Product Marketing and the longest-serving member of Kolekti's marketing team, Jimi is a force to be reckoned with. Jimi excels at go-to-market planning, digital marketing, and line management across the full product life cycle.
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