During our session with my clients they often talk about how busy they are. If I may quote, they
generally use below sentences to explain how busy they are:
- I want to start a new exercise routine, but I am so busy to do that.
- I want to have our sessions regularly, but I must cancel most of the time because I am so busy.
- I want to spend more time with my family, but I don’t have enough time for them.
I generally offer to use urgent/important matrix as a starting point for them to understand how they split their tasks and daily activities.
The idea of measuring and combining these two competing elements (urgent/important) in a matrix has been attributed to both former US President Eisenhower and Dr Stephen Covey.
Eisenhower’s quote, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important,” sums up the concept of the matrix perfectly. This so-called “Eisenhower Principle” is said to be how Eisenhower organized his tasks. As a result, the matrix is sometimes called the Eisenhower Matrix.
Practise of the Week: Managing your time both in a personal arena and professional nature means spending your time on things that are important as well as urgent. Let’s define your own matrix first.
Urgent Not Urgent
| Urgent & Important
Critical activities Crisis Pressing issues Deadlines |
Not Urgent / Important
Important Goals Planning Preparation Personal Development |
| Urgent / Not Important
Interruptions More ‘interesting’ activities |
Not Urgent / Not Important
Trivia Time wasting Distractions |
The first step is to list all the activities and projects that you feel you must do on a blank sheet of paper. Try to include everything that takes up your time even those areas that you currently feel are unimportant.
Next assign a level of importance to each of these activities. Use a scale of 1-10. 1 being low importance and 10 being very important. How important is this activity on a scale of 1-10 to help you achieve your goals? Try not to concern yourself with the urgency attached to them at this stage. This will help establish the true IMPORTANCE.
Once you have assigned importance to each of the activities evaluate the urgency of each activity using the same scale.
Now consider each of the activities and decide which quadrant they fall into based on your figures:
Urgent and important
It seems like you have to do these activities as soon as possible even though if they are the most boring or difficult ones.
Urgent and not important
Urgent but not important activities are often activities that prevent you from achieving your goals and completing your work. Ask yourself whether these tasks can be rescheduled or delegated to someone else.
Not urgent but important
These are the activities that help you achieve your personal goals and complete important work. Make sure you have enough time to do things properly so that they do not become urgent.
Not urgent and not important
These activities are just a distraction and should be avoided where possible. They maybe activities that others wish you to complete but do not help you move towards your own goals. Often when people can clearly see that you are clear about your objectives and boundaries, they will often not ask you to complete unimportant tasks again.
Also, I believe not urgent and not important activities can be the most attractive ones sometimes. So, if you need to do them to have fun please do that.
Quote of the week: Each of these definitions are general definitions. How you categorise your tasks and activities is down to you. There is no right or wrong, but you must assign each activity to one of the quadrants. Just be aware that which activates take your time most. If you know where you spend your time most you can start to manage it.
Have a great week and stay safe.
