If you’re not used to setting your own schedule, juggling all the tasks you need to complete each day can be tough. Having so many seemingly-urgent jobs and duties can feel like you’re climbing a mountain with no end in sight. Because of this added pressure, you might unknowingly fill your day with busywork and excuses to procrastinate without even realizing you’re doing it.
How do you avoid getting overwhelmed or sidetracked by trivial tasks? One method is using the prioritization matrix to your advantage.
The prioritization matrix is a tool that helps you emphasize the productive tasks and set aside the biggest time wasters, letting you get more done each day. When you learn how to use the prioritization matrix, you’ll start using your time more efficiently as you tackle the most important and urgent tasks first.
What is the Prioritization Matrix?
The prioritization matrix is a visual aid that can help you, as the name implies, get your priorities in order. Its purpose is to allow you to organize your to-do list according to what is the most important and urgent, encouraging you to complete these tasks first and postpone or eliminate any tasks that don’t help you achieve your goals.
There are two main types of prioritization matrices. The Six Sigma approach is a more complicated matrix, and it is mainly used by businesses for coordinating different teams.
Most individuals looking to become more productive use the simpler Eisenhower matrix instead.
The Eisenhower matrix is a grid divided into four quadrants. These quadrants are labeled based on how important and urgent the tasks inside them are.
Tasks may be urgent, important, both, or neither. This system of categorization lets you easily see the relative importance of everything you need to get done.
Mastering the productivity matrix helps you decide which tasks need your attention right away, which ones can be completed later, and which ones you might not have to do at all. This allows you to manage your time more effectively, making you more productive.
How to Use the Prioritization Matrix to Improve Your Workflow
One of the biggest productivity stumbling blocks is the dreaded procrastination. Engaging in this bad habit means putting off important tasks until the last minute, or worse, failing to complete them altogether.
And procrastination isn’t just bad for your ability to hit deadlines. It can have all sorts of harmful physical effects like increased stress levels and a higher risk of related conditions like hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
The good news is that your tendency to procrastinate can be managed and even defeated through better time management, and the prioritization matrix can help.
Consider the following scenario: You’ve set a goal to write 500 words each day, but whenever you sit down to write, something else always distracts you.
Maybe you’ve decided you can’t write until you’ve done the dishes, or done a load of laundry, and before you know it you’ve deep-cleaned the whole house without getting any writing done. In other words, you procrastinated by prioritizing tasks that weren’t actually urgent.
Does this situation sound familiar? If so, you know how easy it is to convince yourself you’re just too busy to write, even when you’re filling your day with less pressing tasks. You might be keeping yourself busy, but that doesn’t mean that you’re managing your time effectively.
Luckily, the prioritization matrix is all about improving your time management skills. When you use the matrix to your advantage, you’re less likely to procrastinate by working on less important tasks, and more likely to jump right to the duties that you actually need to complete.
This means less stress, less guilt, and more progress toward your goals!
How to Read a Prioritization Matrix
Understanding the prioritization matrix is the first step in using it to your advantage. It might seem complex at first glance, but the matrix is actually fairly simple.
If you’ve never used a prioritization matrix before, you might not fully understand how it can help. Let’s take a look at each part of the matrix, starting with the different axes.
Urgency Versus Importance
The trick to using the prioritization matrix is knowing the difference between urgency and importance.
Important tasks are those that bring you closer to your goals. They may help you achieve a short-term goal, or set you up for greater success in the long run.
Urgent tasks need to be completed within a certain amount of time. They have hard deadlines that are rapidly approaching, though the consequences of not finishing them in time can range from severe to almost nonexistent.
A task can be important without being urgent. For example, if your long-term goal is to save enough money to move out, you’re probably not planning to move anytime soon. However, it’s still important to put money in your savings account every few weeks, even if there’s no rapidly-approaching deadline.
Similarly, a task might be urgent without actually being important. Many stores offer flash sales that are only around for a day or two to make shopping seem more important than it actually is. The truth is that while this might be something urgent that you could miss out on, spending an hour shopping online isn’t going to benefit you as much as just buckling down and doing your work.
Additionally, some tasks are both urgent and important, which often means there are ramifications for not completing them soon.
Each task in your to-do list can be sorted into its own category based on how important and urgent it is.
The Four Quadrants
The productivity matrix is split into four quadrants. Each of the quadrants refers to a different level of importance and urgency for the tasks contained within.
The x axis, which runs horizontally across the top of the matrix, refers to urgency. It is labeled with “do now” on the leftmost side and “do later” on the right.
The y axis runs vertically, and it measures importance. The top of the axis refers to “very urgent” tasks, while the bottom indicates “not urgent” ones.
The intersection of these axes gives you “important and urgent” in the top left quadrant, “important but not urgent” in the top right, “not important but urgent” in the bottom left, and “neither important nor urgent” in the bottom right. The quadrants then translate into the catchier terms “do now,” “do next,” “do later or delegate,” and “do never,” respectively.
Do Now
The “do now” tasks are ones that are both urgent and important. They help you fulfill your short-term or long-term goals, and they also have a deadline that is rapidly approaching.
You don’t have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to getting these tasks done, so it’s best to do them as soon as possible. If you miss a deadline, this could have serious consequences for your future success. For example, your job might be at risk if you don’t complete a project for work on time.
Of course, tasks that fall into this quadrant don’t always need to have immediate consequences. If you fail to hit your daily writing goal, you might not have to give up on your dream of finishing your book right away, but you’ll have to pick up the slack tomorrow. Fall behind too many days in a row, and you could jeopardize your chances of completing it.
“Do now” tasks are the most important, but they can also be the most difficult, which means it’s easy to procrastinate them. Remind yourself of their priority and try to get them done before other, easier tasks you might be tempted to do instead.
Do Next
The “do next” quadrant contains all the tasks on your plate that are important in the long run, but that don’t require immediate attention. They may have no deadline or you might have a while to get them done.
While this might tempt you to put these tasks off indefinitely, this is just another method of procrastinating. Sooner or later, these tasks will likely become urgent, and you don’t want to end up scrambling to finish them in time. While they shouldn’t be your first priority, you’ll want to knock them out after you finish the important and urgent tasks to stay ahead of the curve.
It can help to break “do next” tasks down into smaller chunks and give yourself deadlines for each step. This way, you complete them a little at a time over a period of days, weeks or months, and you avoid burnout.
Do Later or Delegate
Tasks that are urgent but not important can be the most deceptive of all.
Let’s say you have a few emails to respond to. You can easily lose your morning to typing out responses, but is this really the best use of your time and energy at the beginning of the day?
Someone might be expecting an urgent response, but chances are most of the emails you get won’t have any big consequences for responding to them a few hours later. They are time-sensitive, but ultimately shouldn’t take priority over the truly important tasks, even those that don’t need your immediate attention.
You have two options with these kinds of tasks. If you need to deal with the task yourself, then you can simply do it later, after you’ve dealt with your “do now” and “do next” tasks.
On the other hand, if you have someone who can handle these tasks for you and they don’t need your attention, you may be able to delegate them to someone else. For example, the owner of a company might delegate answering the phones. This needs to be done in a timely manner, but if a CEO spent all their time talking to angry customers, they’d never be able to run their company.
You might not have employees ready to do the work for you, but you can still ask friends and family for assistance with small tasks if you’re feeling overwhelmed. A friend may agree to grab some supplies for you at the store if you offer to do the same for them next week when you have more time.
Do Never
Finally, there are tasks that are neither important nor urgent. These pose the biggest risk of encouraging procrastination, as they can often trick you into seeing them as far more beneficial than they actually are, or encourage you to goof off instead of working through the tougher tasks.
You might want to spend an hour or two watching mindless TV or scrolling through your social media, but these activities don’t help you achieve your goals, nor do they need to be completed before a specific date. Therefore, they should be your lowest priority.
It’s perfectly fine to take some time to rest and recharge your batteries, but don’t make the mistake of prioritizing this over the urgent and important tasks. Save these activities for after everything else is completed.
Some studies even suggest that excessive time spent on social media sites can even lower your mood rather than helping you relax. These kinds of harmful activities can be safely cut out of your daily schedule, leaving you with more time in your day to fill with productive work.
Assigning Tasks to a Quadrant
Now that you know what each quadrant means, you can start assigning every task you need or want to complete to the correct quadrant.
Keep in mind that there is some room for debate on how many tasks should be categorized. What might be important to you might be entirely unimportant to someone else depending on your personal goals, so assign tasks as you see fit.
How to Evaluate Each Task
Start by making a big list of everything you’re trying to do. Include everything from long-term projects and daily tasks.
This list will likely seem overwhelming at first, but organizing your to-do list and weeding out the least productive tasks is exactly what the prioritization matrix is designed to help with.
Next, draw a prioritization matrix, or list each of the different quadrants. Go down your list and assign each task to the quadrant that makes the most sense. When you’re done, you’ll have organized everything you need to do, and you’ll know exactly which tasks you can afford to put off or skip entirely.
Here are a few examples of tasks that could belong in each quadrant.
Know Your Priorities
The most important determining factor when choosing what category a task belongs in is your own priorities.
If your long-term goal is to become a self-published author, then there may be times where your ability to write has to take precedent over your other obligations. Someone who is more interested in moving up the ladder at their current job might structure their priorities differently.
Take some time to seriously consider what is most important to you in life, as well as what you could live without. This will help you make the tough calls and decide which tasks are more important and urgent than others for you.
Completing Tasks in Order of Priority
With all of your tasks organized into different quadrants, you can now create a schedule or checklist that prioritizes tasks in the most efficient order.
Take everything from the “do now” category and put it at the top of your to-do list. Follow it with the “do next” and “do later” tasks. Leave off any tasks that ended up in the “do never” pile.
You now have a clear, coherent tasklist that’s easy to follow and will keep you on the right track at all times. The only thing left to do is to stick to it!
Final Thoughts
It’s common to feel overwhelmed and exhausted if you always seem to be fighting against a tide of endless work.
As the old adage goes, work smarter, not harder. By using the prioritization matrix, you can easily root out and eliminate the biggest time wasting tasks so you can focus on the ones that really matter.
Once you’ve properly prioritized your tasks, an increase in productivity is sure to follow!
Frequently Asked Questions
What if two tasks feel equally important and urgent?
Consider which task will bring you closer to your long-term goals, or which one has the greatest consequences if you don’t complete it in time. It’s also often smart to begin with the most difficult tasks to get them out of the way first.
Is the prioritization matrix only for work?
Important tasks aren’t just ones you need to do for work. You can use the prioritization matrix in many different areas of your life, including managing your relationships, dealing with household chores, and finding a good work-life balance.