Eisenhower Matrix 
not important but urgent tasks
DELEGATE

How could an urgent task not be important?

when you think about it, these are easy to spot. They are interruptions (“You’ve got mail!”, “Ping! New message!”), meetings, activities, things and busy work that don’t need your specific skills. Checking phone or email when it goes off, responding to these and social media messages are included here. 

These tasks aren’t actually meaningful to you. Often these are urgent but related to someone else’s priorities - you are involved in making someone else’s goals a reality, not your own. When you look at these tasks, they feel like things you should do, rather than things you want to do. They make you feel like you are not reaching for your own goals or that you don’t have control over your daily life.

These are the things that can actually prevent you from achieving your goals. Try rescheduling or delegating them. More often than not these tasks come from other people – they are less important to you than they are to them. Learn to say no to those tasks that do not bring you closer to your own goals, especially if the person asking you to do these tasks could well delegate them to someone else. You might suggest a person they could ask to do the task, or direct the person asking your help to resources that help them help themselves. I’m sure we all know the type that won’t bother to search for answers themselves, and would just prefer to dump the question or task to someone else.

Ask are you the only person who can do the task, and the answer is no, delegate. Or plan time slots when you are available to others and stick to those. If someone repeatedly disturbs you with important + not urgent -issues, tell them when you have time to discuss with them, and go through whatever they wish to talk about then. Stick to your decision you won’t do the thing if it doesn’t require your specific expertise or doesn’t really benefit you in any way. Practice saying no. If needed, sit down and write down what you will say if someone comes asking for your time and you don’t have time to give.

Limit the time you use on these tasks. Plan specific steps on how to do this.

In your home these things could be doing the dishes (could the children do these - they are not living in a hotel after all and need to learn to take part in the everyday running of the household), buying groceries (could these be ordered online and delivered to you?).

Back to Homepage

Back to Time Management Methods

Back to Eisenhower Method main page