Eisenhower matrix
Add your tasks and mark each as urgent, important, both or neither. The matrix tells you what to do now, what to schedule, what to hand off and what to drop.
Do it now Urgent and important
- Fix the bug customers are hitting
Schedule it Important, not urgent
- Plan next quarter
Delegate it Urgent, not important
- Book the team offsite venue
Drop it Neither
- Reorganize old files
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The four boxes
| Box | Test | Examples | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it now | Urgent and important | A deadline today, a customer-facing bug, a real crisis | Do it yourself, soon |
| Schedule it | Important, not urgent | Planning, learning, exercise, the project that matters | Put a block in the calendar |
| Delegate it | Urgent, not important | Most interruptions, some meetings, routine requests | Hand it off, or batch it |
| Drop it | Neither | Busywork, aimless scrolling, tidying that can wait | Stop doing it |
Where it comes from
In a 1954 speech, Eisenhower quoted a former college president: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” Decades later Stephen Covey turned the idea into a two-by-two grid in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), and it has been a staple of time management ever since.
Getting the most from it
- Be strict with “important”. If you can't say what it moves forward, it probably isn't.
- Give “schedule it” real time. Put a focus block in the calendar for the top item, and protect it like a meeting.
- Delegating isn't only handing off. When there's no one to hand to, batch the urgent small things into one slot a day.
- Review it weekly. Things move between boxes as deadlines come closer.
Once you know what matters, the Pomodoro calculator turns it into a plan for the day, and our guide to the Eisenhower matrix has worked examples.
Questions
What is the Eisenhower matrix?
A way of sorting tasks by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important? That gives four boxes: do it now, schedule it, delegate it, or drop it. It's named after US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Stephen Covey made it famous in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
What's the difference between urgent and important?
Urgent means it wants attention now: a message, a ringing phone, a deadline. Important means it moves you toward what you care about. The trap is that urgent things feel important, so the truly important but quiet work keeps getting pushed back.
Which quadrant matters most?
Schedule it: important but not urgent. That's where planning, learning, health and the work that compounds live. The more time you spend there, the fewer crises reach 'do it now'.
Is my list private?
Yes. It's saved in your browser's storage on this device and never sent anywhere. Clearing your browser data clears the list.
Further reading
- The Eisenhower matrix, with real examplesUrgent or important? How the Eisenhower matrix works, where it comes from, worked examples for a developer, a student and a manager, and how to use it each week.
- Time blocking: how to plan your day in blocksTime blocking gives your important work a place on the calendar. How to block a day, an example schedule, and how it fits with timeboxing and the Pomodoro Technique.
- How to stop procrastinating: start with 10 minutesProcrastination is about managing feelings, not time. Why we put things off, why the ten-minute start works so well, and eight more ways to get going.
More free tools
- Pomodoro timer25 minutes of focus, then a break. With a seat-belt chime.
- Deep work timer52/17, 50/10 or 90-minute blocks for deeper work.
- Pomodoro calculatorHow many Pomodoros your tasks take, and when you'll finish.
- Meeting cost calculatorWhat a meeting costs in salary and in lost focus time.
- Context switching calculatorHow much focus your interruptions cost you in a year.
- Reading time calculatorHow long a text takes to read, skim or say out loud.