Eisenhower Matrix 
Tasks that are both
important and urgent
DO NOW

Eisenhower matrix important and urgent -sector is where most of us spend most of our time.

There is a reason this quadrant of the Eisenhower Matrix is also called the Stress Quadrant.  In here you find time-critical tasks you can't push forward. 

• These may be surprise crises like water damage at home or your car breaking away from home. 
  
• Also deadlines you haven't worked for in good time ("I have time to do them later"-syndrome, also called time-optimism being the reason)
• Things that land on your desk - with consequences if immediate action is not taken.

These are tasks you may not want to do, but which demand your immediate attention. They need your expertise. These are often a direct result of procrastination (why didn’t you do the taxes earlier?). But, as they are in this quadrant, they should be handled first.

These tasks make us what Tim Urban calls Instant Gratification Monkeys – that is, we do things with a deadline first. "In a world of instant gratification, the biggest challenge to human behavior is not resisting temptation. It's finding the will to act in spite of it."

Stop there and read those words again. Instant gratification is the very thing that makes us do everything else but the task at hand. That's just how our brains are hardwired - to search for gratification. And ticking off an endless list of do-immediately-tasks may give the illusion of gratification, but in the long run it is just the opposite.

Pay attention if you are in a habit of leaving tasks to the last minute. If you have learned this bad habit, you need to unlearn it by planning how not to procrastinate in the future.

Yes. Planning. But how?

Check if there is a pattern. Could you have foreseen any of these tasks? If so, pull out your planner and check how you could schedule these beforehand so they never become urgent. If you think that is a boring task, just imagine for a while how nice it would be to have good time to concentrate on tasks so that they are actually done before they need to be ready. No tense feeling in your pancreas, no snapping out on others because of the stress and hurry. 

If there are important and urgent tasks that take only a few minutes to complete (such as answering emails quickly and returning calls), do them immediately. 

You often think you have all the time in the world to do these - or you procrastinate because you just don’t want to do them or... Have you noticed your unwillingness to deal with something because they are connected with something or someone you don’t like and thinking about them makes you feel uneasy.

If there are important and urgent tasks that take only a few minutes to complete (such as answering emails quickly and returning calls), do them immediately. You often think you have all the time in the world to do these - or you procrastinate because you just don’t want to do them or... Have you noticed your unwillingness to deal with something because they are connected with something or someone you don’t like and thinking about them makes you feel uneasy.

Buckle up, concentrate, do the task at one sitting and move on. The feeling of relief will be great, I promise. It is amazing how much energy a task undone can steal. Urgency can also stop productivity when these urgent tasks steal the time you'd need to use in other long-term tasks before they become urgent. Also urgency can cause sloppy work when you don't have the time to really concentrate.

Using a timer might help you focus. Do not accept interruptions during this time. 

If a task takes more than a few minutes, take your calendar and plan a time-block for it. Avoid the trap of closing your calendar, all smug about how your life is now in order. You do need to remember to look at your calendar - the more tasks you have, the more it needs to be open in front of your.

Plan your week at the end of the previous week, and check daily what you need to do the next day. I prefer doing this in the evening, but you can also do this the first thing in the morning, should you fall to bed with your boots on, completely exhausted. When you block your to-do-times in your calendar as soon as a task reminds of itself, all you need to do is to open your calendar, do a few tweaks to your day if necessary and start your day.

I ask you to jot down time for the next quadrant first (important + not urgent), but after that plan time for this section. It is important to do it in this order because it is a way to proceed towards your truly important goals in good time. But knowing you have planned time for this Do Now -section, eases your stress.

It is amazing how much calmer you feel when you have your day planned.

I use erasable highlighters to colour-code my calendar (Well, two calendar, to be exact. One that shows the week on a spread and another which is of the page per day / hourly type, where I also write notes). 

Also have a look at your plans at the end of the week - how well did you manage? Were you over-optimistic with the time you thought you had to do everything? Are there patterns that make it hard for you to do your tasks? Can you do something about them?

Remember to block time for this weekly review in your calendar as well. 

As the saying goes: Life is what happens when you have other plans. Surprises arise as we cannot control the world around us.  But really to an extent you can be prepared for these surprises like you would for any other task. This is done by planning a little buffer time in your calendar for these.

You don't exactly need to block specific times and name them "surprise" - instead don't plan every waking minute for known tasks. Just leave enough unplanned time to days so that should a surprise arise, you can move your pre-planned tasks accordingly (the ones that don't require you to be at a specific place at a specific time).

Do you find that it is constantly the same person who is the source of these do-immediately-tasks? Someone who finds it convenient to unburden their own to-do-list by delegating it to you.  Someone who only contacts you when they need a favor from you? I bet we all have people like that in our lives...

Have you been too kind for too long, not saying the feared “no”-word when you know you should? Women often behave like this, thanks to the "good girl" syndrome. 

Well, it might be time to stop being the good girl who helps everyone.

How to find a way to diminish this person’s invasion of your time?

If you find it hard to say no after a lifetime of saying yes to everyone who says they need your help, here is a tip for you:

Write down sentences you can use when this person comes demanding your time. Really? Yes, really!

Heck, even practice the sentences out loud. In front of the mirror, looking confident. When you drive in your car. When you go out jogging (if you have planned your life enough to find time to exercise, that is)... Practice makes perfect. And if you need to say these rehearsed sentences on the phone, even easier. Just have them written in your planner and read from there. The time-thief doesn't know you are reading a script. You don't need to tell them you have no obligations on Tuesday evening and want to rest. Just say your calendar is full and you don't have time. And time-block in your calendar on Tuesday: "My time". There. Now your calendar is full.

It works. You're welcome.

Trust me - a time-thief will continue stealing your time just as long as you let them. They are trying to make life easier for themselves, and if they find a great way to do it (that is you agreeing to their every request), they will repeat the habit as long as it works. Make it hard for them and they will make an about-turn and search other victims.

You may even find yourself in a situation where you need to remove yourself from this person, if they take your time for granted.  It is completely acceptable, OK and well done, if this is the case. 

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