Recently at Entrepreneur.com, there’s an article about the Eisenhower Box, a time-management tool used by the 34th U.S. president and supreme allied commander in Europe during World War II. As author James Clear puts it:
“His most famous productivity strategy is known as the Eisenhower Box, and it’s a simple decision-making tool you can use right now. Here’s how it works.
“Eisenhower’s strategy for taking action and organizing tasks is simple. Using the decision matrix below, you will separate your actions based on four possibilities:
• Urgent and important (tasks you will do immediately).
• Important, but not urgent (tasks you will schedule to do later).
• Urgent, but not important (tasks you will delegate to someone else).
• Neither urgent nor important (tasks that you will eliminate).
“The great thing about this matrix is that it can be used for broad productivity plans (How should I spend my time each week?) and for smaller, daily plans (What should I do today?).”
Clear observes, “I find that the Eisenhower Method is particularly useful because it pushes me to question whether an action is really necessary, which means I’m more likely to move tasks to the Delete quadrant rather than mindlessly repeating them. To be honest, if you simply eliminated all the things you waste time on each day, then you probably wouldn’t need any strategies and tips to become more productive at the things that matter.” (Click to read the full article.)