02.05.2025

THE EISENHOWER PRINCIPLE AND THE COVIE MATRIX OR HOW TO CLASSIFY TASKS AND WIN

Your health, happiness and career success rest on one key skill - managing your time. Don't let this statement seem far-fetched. Think about how much work you have to do every day and what happens when you don't get it done - you stay extra or leave, but you can't relax in the evening because you're worried that tomorrow your tasks will become an avalanche.

 To reduce stress, you need to learn to manage your time. This includes not dividing tasks according to the (dis)pleasure they bring, pushing back the unpleasant ones, making a list in writing and prioritizing each task.

In order not to slip and start doing things that do not benefit you, it is of the greatest importance to classify your tasks at the same time according to two signs - importance and urgency. This is the only true way to succeed for people who have a lot to do, time management experts assure.

Divide all your tasks into 4 groups: urgent and important; important but not urgent; urgent but not important; non-urgent and non-important. This classification is called the Eisenhower Principle.

"I have two kinds of problems: urgent and important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent," said US President Dwight Eisenhower in a 1954 speech. This gives an idea for the development of the principle named after him. The time management matrix for combining tasks by urgency and importance is from Stephen Covey, author of the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Classification according to both indicators at the same time is extremely important. Otherwise, you may be misled. Urgent tasks are usually clearly visible and demand attention. It seems to you that you should finish them, if not - the consequences will be immediate. However, important tasks are those that contribute to the achievement of goals and top priorities.

Therefore, time management will only be effective if you arrange your commitments, taking into account both indicators. Depending on the combination of urgency and importance, you should place each task and activity in one of the four squares of the Covey matrix.

Priority tasks are those that are urgent and important. Trying to put them off will cause you big problems, so you need to tackle them immediately.

Commitments that you have not planned properly or that you have put off until the last, including because they are unpleasant to you, are often placed in this square.

This includes tasks that strike unexpectedly - crisis situations that cannot be predicted. It is precisely for this reason that it is good to leave some reserve of time for "fires" when planning the day. It is not by chance that this square in the matrix is ​​called "stress".

In the second square are the important but non-term commitments. You may put them off, but they are capable of influencing your success in the long run. They also have a tendency to become urgent and important if you keep putting them off.

The tasks here are most strongly related to achieving high efficiency and success in professional life.

And the most insidious thing is that since they are not urgent, you very often tend to ignore them, especially if they are unpleasant to you. Stephen Covey suggests thinking like this: "What is the one thing you could do that, if you did it regularly, would cause a huge positive change in your personal and professional life? The activities in the second square are of this type. That's why your effectiveness increases if you do them".

These tasks require you to schedule time in advance to complete them. Otherwise, tasks from other squares will take precedence. "Most people do not know why they constantly do not have time for the things that are important to them. They simply react to what is happening, instead of following their priorities, they are used to it and do not realize that they themselves are building such a reality that they do not want to live in ", warns business consultant Lolly Daskal.

Urgent but non-important tasks have little impact on your success. Doing them does not lead to a significant result, but it can negatively affect your efficiency because it takes up a large part of your time.

These are exactly the tasks that you might try to outsource or reduce the amount of. "There are people who spend most of their time in the urgent but unimportant square three, deluding themselves that they are in square one. They respond primarily to urgent things, taking them to be important. But in reality their urgency is determined by other people's priorities and expectations," explains Stephen Covey.

To cope with the flow of urgent and non-urgent tasks, you must learn to say "No" to others - politely but firmly. Otherwise, you risk working overtime to make ends meet and your career stalling.

The fourth square includes non-urgent and non-important activities - for example, an unnecessary phone call or attention to a person who is wasting your time. They have no meaning and no consequences arise from their failure. Try to cross them out.

However, it is normal to devote some time to socializing with pleasant colleagues or to something else relaxing. With so much work during the day, you have to reward yourself with a little pleasure.