I Finally Tried the “Eisenhower Matrix,” and It Helped Me Tackle My To-Do List

I tend to be more reactive and overwhelmed when I’m being pulled in multiple directions, like when I’m trying to get dinner ready and then an email pops up on my phone from my boss. My dinner is right in front of me, burning away on the stove, and yet I feel like I have to answer that email right away, even if it’s after work hours or I know that it can wait 10 minutes.

I’ve long struggled with prioritization and knowing what needs to be taken care of in the moment and what can wait, so I started researching productivity tools and came across the “Eisenhower Matrix.” I decided to try it for a week to see if it can help increase my productivity. 

Created by and named after Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, the Eisenhower Matrix is a productivity tool that helps you reflect on your priorities and know what to tackle based on urgency and importance.

Brianna Paruolo, a mental health therapist and founder of On Par Therapy, says that the Eisenhower Matrix can make a huge difference. “The Eisenhower Matrix forces us to be intentional, pause, and test how important and urgent a task truly is,” Paruolo says. “Just a few moments of intentionality can help reduce stress.”

The first step is to write out a list of tasks you need to complete. Go through your list and label each task as “important” or “unimportant,” and as “urgent” or “nonurgent.” Then, take a piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle and a horizontal line across, so you end up with four quadrants: Do, Decide, Delegate, and Delete. (Some matrixes use terms like Do, Schedule, Delegate, Delete, for example, but it all means the same thing.) 

• Do: These are tasks you’ve labeled “important” and “urgent,” requiring your immediate attention. For example, you might need to prioritize calling the pharmacy to renew a prescription you have to start in a few days. 
• Decide: This quadrant includes tasks that are “important” and “nonurgent,” meaning they’re not time-sensitive, so you can hold off on doing them today. An example would be preparing slides for a presentation you have to deliver in a couple of weeks, or doing laundry when you still have a few more days of underwear.
• Delegate: You’ve labeled these tasks as “unimportant” and “urgent.” Time may be of the essence, but you don’t necessarily have to do these tasks yourself. For example, you might order food from a meal delivery service because you’re hosting your in-laws but don’t have time to cook.
• Delete: This quadrant includes “unimportant” and “nonurgent” tasks, such as clicking on social media notifications or reading emails from retailers when you’re trying to save money. 

To improve your chances of success, Paruolo recommends tracking where your time goes for a week before aiming to reorganize your whole workload. “While we might consider ourselves speedy in answering emails, this might actually take us longer than we realize,” she says. She also advises that if you’re having difficulties labeling everything “urgent,” you should create non-negotiable calendar blocks where you schedule your important and nonurgent tasks. And if you get to the end of your calendar block without finishing everything, then don’t finish. “Practice sitting in the discomfort of leaving things undone,” she says. “You can’t be everything for everyone, and trying to complete every ‘urgent task’ is a recipe for burnout.”  

I usually work on my to-do list on Sunday afternoons, writing down items without listing them in order of what needs to be done first. This time, I tried creating my to-do list using the Eisenhower Matrix.

Making the list was the easy part, but deciding which tasks were nonurgent or unimportant proved more challenging. I found myself wanting to label tasks I was dreading as urgent, simply to get them out of the way sooner. But I stuck with it, and focused on not how the tasks made me feel, but rather, the actual importance of getting them done quickly. 

As Monday arrived, I had settled on my “Do” list. I felt relieved knowing which tasks I needed to prioritize. I didn’t waste time deliberating what to do first, I just did it, because I knew it was important. I managed to finish half of this list by noon. Tuesday unfolded much the same, as I was able to tune out distractions on my “Delete” list.

On Wednesday, I hit a little road bump. Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert, but I felt like I was in a tailspin after an impromptu Zoom meeting. When the meeting ended, I couldn’t summon the energy to continue with my “Do” list. So, even though the Eisenhower Matrix helped me clarify my priorities, it didn’t inspire or motivate me to complete tasks. 

With the weekend in sight, I treated Thursday as a day to reset. Enlisting the help of a colleague allowed me to move a couple of items from my “Do” list to my “Decide” and “Delegate” lists. Instead of my default strategy of slogging through a task alone, using the matrix prompted me to consider what I could postpone or delegate. As a result, I was able to focus on a smaller set of tasks that required more concentration. 

Despite a few last-minute requests, by Friday, I was on track to complete my “Do” list. Using the Eisenhower Matrix provided a visual reminder that some tasks aren’t worth my time or energy. It also reinforced that I didn’t have to label something urgent because of another person’s definition of urgency and importance. 

The verdict: The Eisenhower Matrix helped me become more efficient. Because of its simplicity, I’ll continue to use this hack, especially when I’m unsure about where to begin. Even though the matrix helped me prioritize my tasks, knowing that something was urgent didn’t automatically translate into increased motivation. 

One thing I didn’t love about the matrix was how it didn’t account for a task’s difficulty level. Within each quadrant, it would be helpful to start with a couple of tasks that are easy to complete. Once your motivation is on the rise, then you can work on a more taxing or challenging project. In the future, I would also lean on other coping strategies like taking deep breaths to deal with anxiety or rewarding myself for finishing a task.