Former United States President Dwight Eisenhower used this tool to organize his tasks. He is quoted as saying, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

You can share the Urgent-Important Matrix with any client to help them reduce stress and overwhelm and manage their time more effectively. It’s a simple but powerful concept, and I love that it’s so easy to apply the learnings in our lives right away.

The Core Idea

We spend too much time dealing with interruptions (Quadrant 3) and distractions (Quadrant 4), and not enough time on goals and planning (Quadrant 2). The result is that we feel stressed, overwhelmed and spend too much time in crisis or fire-fighting mode (Quadrant 1).

Urgent-Important Matrix Overview

Quadrant 1: Crises – Urgent and Important

Examples: An important client complains they still haven’t received their order, a deadline is approaching for a project and you’re nowhere near finished, your electricity is cut-off due to unpaid bills, you must take an urgent trip to the dentist for something that has been bothering you for a while.

Quadrant 2: Goals and Planning – Not Urgent and Important

Examples: Reviewing priorities and tasks, working on major projects, home maintenance, booking health appointments ahead of time, budgets, paying bills, building/maintaining important relationships at work/home, exercising and eating well.

Quadrant 3: Interruptions – Urgent and Not Important

Examples: Unimportant phone-calls/meetings, some email, other people’s priorities.

Quadrant 4: Distractions – Not Urgent and Not Important

Examples: Constantly checking email, social media, excessive TV, internet or computer games, self-critical thoughts, gossip/idle chatting.

Make it Personal and Measurable

Ask your clients to share examples of activities they think fit into each quadrant. If necessary, start them off with a couple of suggestions of your own. Ask them to write out specific examples that are unique to them in each quadrant.

Next ask the client to estimate the percent of time spent in each quadrant and write that number down against each square. NOTE: It’s important to remind clients to be honest and trust their gut-feelings – we don’t want them adjusting the numbers to sound better!

Now Review

Which quadrant do they spend most time in? Are they surprised when they look at the percentages? How does that feel?

Quadrant 1 – Crises: People who spend most time in crises usually feel stressed and overwhelmed.

Explore: Is dealing with crises a necessary part of their job? Do they enjoy the drama on some level? How is it impacting their health and relationships?

Quadrant 2 – Goals and Planning: People who spend most time here feel in control, are clear on where they’re going and may even be relaxed in their jobs.

Explore: How they could be even more effective? Are they relationship-building for their careers or when crises do happen? Are they enjoying themselves enough? Do they need some interruptions and distractions?

Quadrant 3 – Interruptions: People spending a lot of time here are frustrated, stressed and feel like they never get anything done.

Explore: How does saying yes to others impact them and the value they add? How could they say no to others? How could they carve out uninterrupted chunks of time to work on their important projects?

Quadrant 4 – Distractions: People spending a lot of time here are often demotivated, may have low self-esteem, and are usually stressed or frustrated with themselves.

Explore: What are their priorities? How could they find purpose and clarity? What do they need to get them inspired? How could they say no to themselves? How much fun are they having outside of work?

Summary

Our goal in sharing this tool with our clients is to help them be more successful by being clear on what really matters. If they spend more time planning ahead and working on high priority projects, and less time on distractions and interruptions, they will avoid crises, and be happier and more effective.

There is so much potential for follow-up coaching and “aha” moments with this tool. For example, a client may benefit from:

• Aligning their careers and/or lives with their values.
• Regular task planning and prioritizing.
• Prioritizing themselves over others.
• Creating meaning in their current work.
• Identifying where they sabotage themselves and establishing healthy new habits/a new routine.

Wrap up with an Action

Ask questions to help clients identify their next steps like: How would you like to spend your time differently? How would your life be different if you managed your time more effectively? What is your biggest learning from this exercise? What do you think will help you most?

Then to wrap-up, ask your client for at least one action they can implement right away to keep the learning fresh. Enjoy this powerful tool!