The Eisenhower Decision Matrix

Management activities focus on the means of meeting project objectives, such as having effective processes, planning, coordinating, measuring, and monitoring work, among others. Prioritizing work tasks in a project, program, or portfolio is crucial in order to manage and coordinate time and resources.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 invented the world-famous Eisenhower principle, describing how to prioritize work tasks by urgency and importance. The principle is described in an Urgent-Important Matrix, also known as the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. Each quadrant guides decisions and acts of prioritization by comparing tasks to their value and alignment with goals. Therefore, establishing goals before achieving prioritization is paramount in order to use the Eisenhower Matrix effectively. The goal of this prioritization is to avoid crisis situations by planning for the future, making tasks more manageable, helping delegate more, and avoiding wasting time on inconsequential tasks.

The prioritization tool is relevant to the PEOPLE section of Project, Program, and Portfolio management. Specifically focusing on self-management for the individual. The capability of the individual people in a group or team to manage their work, motivation, focus, etc is fundamental for the outcome of the overall project, program, or portfolio. Self-management, also known as self-regulation, is the ability to control and redirect disruptive feelings and impulses. It is the ability to think before acting, suspending snap judgments, and impulsive decisions.

The goal is to make decisions quickly while engaging the diverse knowledge of a group in an inclusive and respectful manner. In the end, the deciding authority, whether an individual or a group, makes a decision based on the presented analysis and with consideration for stakeholder expectations.

The History and the theory of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. Before becoming President, Eisenhower served as a general in the United States Army, as the Allied Forces Supreme Commander during World War II, and later became NATO’s first supreme commander. Through his different roles, he had to make tough decisions continuously about which of the many tasks he should focus on each day. And he did it all with panache — Eisenhower was Gallup’s most admired man of the year no less than twelve times.

Figure 1: Illustration of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix (figure made by Julie Nielsen, based on )

In 1953, Eisenhower became the first Republican in over three decades to win the White House when he succeeded Harry Truman as president. Eisenhower was a master organizer, keeping a tight rein on his time and tasks. In his lifetime, first as an American soldier and then as an elected leader of the US, Eisenhower needed to make many decisions often under extreme pressure.

“Who can define for us with accuracy the difference between the long and short term! Especially whenever our affairs seem to be in crisis, we are almost compelled to give our first attention to the urgent present rather than to the important future.”

– Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 address to the Century Association

How was Eisenhower able to rack up so many accomplishments that would have such a lasting impact on his country and the world? He understood the fundamental difference between the Urgent and the Important. In a 1954 speech, Eisenhower quoted an unnamed university president who said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954

Eisenhower declared this, at the beginning of his presidential mandate, facing the USA's economic and political intern and foreign orientations, during a conference with his cabinet counselors. In other words, Eisenhower expressed that "What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important." These were the words and a way of thinking that would later go on to be used by Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to develop the now-popular tool for task management known as the Eisenhower Decision Matrix.

The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the time management matrix, the Eisenhower Box, and the urgent-important matrix, is a simple tool for considering long-term outcomes. The matrix is a graphical diagram and tool to illustrate the delegation and distinguish between important and urgent tasks. The four quadrants cover important/urgent, important/non-urgent, nonimportant/urgent, and non-important/non-urgent; each guiding decisions and acts of prioritization by comparing tasks to their value and alignment with goals. Therefore, establishing goals before achieving prioritization is paramount in order to use the Eisenhower Matrix effectively. The matrix, as a method for productivity, has been studied and put to use for many decades with the goal of avoiding crisis situations by planning for the future.

Urgency and Importance

Before diving into the matrix it is crucial to understand and distinguish between urgency and importance. As this is the core analysis that the tool provides, the way that tasks are defined determines the outcome.

Urgency refers to items that require immediate attention. Often urgency is a highly regarded factor in the prioritization of time management as the urgency dictates which tasks promptly require attention for one reason or the other. Urgent work requires attention right away and must complete within a specific time limit, most often a small duration. Important tasks become urgent in due course of time if delayed too much, not given proper attention, or carried out without real interest. Taking time to write performance reviews, avoiding difficult conversations, or preparing for a presentation, are all important tasks that can become urgent if not handled in due time. Steven Covey describes that urgent matters are the visible issues that pop up and demand your attention NOW. Often, urgent matters come with clear consequences for not completing these tasks. Urgent tasks are unavoidable, but spending too much time putting out fires also takes away from focusing on the greater goals and vision. Urgent matters are usually visible. They press on us; they insist on action. They’re often popular with others. They’re usually right in front of us. And often they are pleasant, easy, fun to do. But so often they are unimportant!

Importance refers to items that contribute to overall, long-term goals and vision. Important means “of great significance or value; likely to have a profound effect on success”. Importance is about the impact of accomplishing the task; bringing intrinsic benefit. As Steven Covey describes it, important matters are those that contribute to long-term goals and life values. These items require planning and thoughtful action. When focusing on important matters you manage your time, energy, and attention rather than mindlessly expanding these resources. What is important is subjective and depends on the project, program, or portfolio goal. Important tasks align with an overall mission and goals and have a large impact on its success. Important tasks require initiative and proactiveness. Strategic thinking, risk analysis, roadmap creation, brainstorming, communication, and making sound decisions all require dedicated time to do quality work.

1. Quadrant

1. Quadrant - do first, the urgent and important matters.

This quadrant consists of matters that require immediate action. The urgent and important matters typically have visible deadlines and consequences for stalling on taking action. These are therefore matters that should be prioritized. In other terms, matters placed in the first quadrant of the matrix deal with a form of crisis. It deals with significant results that require immediate attention. The first quadrant can consume many people. They are crisis managers, problem-minded people, and deadline-driven producers. As long as you focus on Quadrant I, it keeps getting bigger and bigger until it dominates you. It is therefore advantageous not to focus too much on this first quadrant in order to improve and emphasize the matters that tackle long-term goals.

2. Quadrant

2. Quadrant - schedule, the not urgent and important matters.

The second quadrant entails matters of low urgency and high importance. These are the matters that support long-term goals and require proactive work in order to gain a greater effect on the overall vision. It is easy for this quadrant to be disregarded as it is not urgent, but the impact of these matters tends to have a bigger impact if prioritized. While it’s not possible to completely avoid crisis, carefully planning work that aligns with long-term goals while taking a risk and other factors into account will involve less crisis creating a self-perpetuating cycle that will free up more time to do forward-looking work. Our natural tendency is to deal with the urgent while delaying important work. Spending more time in this quadrant will require exercising control as it will be the biggest driver in achieving significant results and creating value for the organization and its people. The second quadrant is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with all those things we know we need to do, but somehow seldom get around to doing, because they aren’t urgent. This is the spot to be focused not on problems (as with Q1) but on opportunities and growth. Focussing on this quadrant of the matrix means proactivity and prioritization of activities that grow skills and energy, and contribute to accomplishing meaningful goals. Lastly, by attending to Q2 consistently, the number of pressing problems that pop up in Q1 will decrease. By creating plans to complete projects and avoid possible problems.

3. Quadrant

3. Quadrant - delegate, the urgent but not important matters.

Urgent but Not Important tasks are best described as busywork. These matters are often based on expectations set by others and do not move you closer to your long-term goals. Steven Covey mentions that there are people who spend a great deal of time in the “urgent, but not important” third quadrant, thinking they’re in the first quadrant. They spend most of their time reacting to things that are urgent, assuming they are also important. But the reality is that the urgency of these matters is often based on the priorities and expectations of others. Given that Q3 tasks are urgent but typically related to someone else's priorities, it is suggested by Covey that these be delegated. To separate important from not important requires careful examination, understanding, and setting priorities personally or for the team. As a manager, matters in this quadrant are perfect candidates to entrust your team with more responsibilities and empower them to make independent decisions. Delegating work in this manner will not only free up time to do work that requires careful planning in the second quadrant but also establish trust with the team members creating a beneficial result all around.

4. Quadrant

4. Quadrant - delete or leave for later, the not urgent, nor important matters.

Last, and in this case, the least, the not urgent and not important matters are time-wasting activities that should be ruthlessly cut out. These activities don’t contribute to progress on any goals but can end up taking over large chunks of time. These not important, not urgent tasks are time-wasting efforts that can abdicate from providing true value. Therefore, these matters must be deleted or left. Left, in the cases that there might come a time where the matter becomes important and can then be moved into a new quadrant. When focusing on overall vision and goals, the content of the fourth quadrant is not relevant directly, but when working with people the fourth quadrant can also include leisure time. Covey describes that some people are literally beaten up by problems all day every day. The only relief they have is in escaping to the not important, not urgent activities of Quadrant IV. In a more balanced way the fourth quadrant can also be used as a way of recharging away from the important matters. Eisenhower himself was a well-known bridge player — even playing nightly up to D-Day — and was famously criticized for his many golf trips while in office. The key is that these activities were a balance the many stressful aspects of being a political leader. However, if you're not intentional about it, the way you spend your downtime can actually drain your energy, passion, and creativity.

Project, Program, and Portfolio Management

The prioritization tool, inspired by Dwight D. Eisenhower, particularly tackles the self-management aspect of PEOPLE in Project, Program, and Portfolio management. The way in which each team member is able to self-manage is crucial for the overall performance of the team. Since projects are undertaken by people and for people, emotional intelligence—the ability to understand one’s self and effectively sustain working relationships with others—is critical in project team environments.

Limitations

What can it not do? Under what circumstances should it be used, and when not? How does it compare to the “status quo” of the standards – is it part of it, or does it extend them?

Annotated Bibliography

The Sung Diagram: Revitalizing the Eisenhower Matrix. Diagrammatic Representation and Inference

The article identifies a collection of scenarios in which the traditional Eisenhower matrix provides misleading suggestions and proposes an extension to the matrix that addresses the misleading suggestions illustrated with examples and implementation in a web application.

A study on Task Management System. 2016 International Conference on Research Advances in Integrated Navigation Systems (RAINS)

The Task Management study explores a Task Matrix based on the Eisenhower Method, with the goal of gaining a general agreement as to which features should take priority over which other features if all work cannot be completed by the deadline.

Covey, S.R.: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

In his book, 7 Habits, Covey talks about what is important versus what is urgent, as he describes the Eisenhower Matrix and the most effective way to prioritize tasks.

Online Sources

Avoid the “Urgency Trap” with the Eisenhower Matrix, from Todoist.com, is written by Laura Scroggs, freelance writer, Ph.D. candidate, and pug mom living in Minneapolis, MN. It is based on Covey, S. R.’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, and provides an overview of the matrix as well as information on how to implement the Eisenhower Matrix in Todoist.

Eisenhower Matrix: How to Prioritise and Master Productivity, from TechTello.com, is written by author and founder of Techtello, Vinita Bansal. Bansal is a technology enthusiast, passionate about building great teams and scaling organizations.