Eisenhower Matrix

This time management technique splits into four categories for work prioritisation, based on how important and urgent the tasks are.

• Category 1: Important and Urgent tasks. Do these first.

• Category 2: Important but not Urgent tasks. Plan to do these later on.

• Category 3: Urgent but not important tasks. Delegate these tasks to someone else. These can be unexpected actions, that are not critical, but do need to be addressed. A good example can be a request for help from a work colleague. Often this can be delegated to someone else (unless you are the unfortunate worker at the end of the list).

• Category 4: Neither urgent nor important tasks. These are mostly irrelevant tasks that just distract from what is really needed. Bin these, delete, remove or eliminate them.

Urgent tasks are defined as those that require immediate attention and might typically be deadlines that must not be missed, otherwise there could be seriously negative consequences could result.

Important tasks are defined as those which are more for achieving longer-term goals, so they need to be well planned into work schedules, but don’t need to be carried out immediately.

Involving and discussing workloads with others in a team can help to determine, and with agreement, what is urgent and what is important. This allows for a more consensus driven approach to teamwork, getting more of a buy-in from everyone and this can especially help for delegating work or where assistance is required by others.