How I Use The Eisenhower Decision Matrix For School and Work
I never leave the house with my planner, but this semester I also started making note cards to track the tasks I need to do in order of importance and urgency. I was inspired by bullet journals on Tumblr, and started making my own.
They follow the concept of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix: a productivity hack made popular by Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Every week I take a plain note card and divide it into this grid (color-coded, of course) to plan out the things I need to do for OSG, work, and class, and to track all the adulting tasks and errands I need to run.
Example from last semester (with an older layout):
I like to keep things colorful, so I have the main check boxes in red, orange, and yellow, and I have each type of task colored: blue for class, red for bills and errands, green for work, purple for blogging and misc.
Urgent tasks require immediate attention.
Important tasks are for long-term planning.
Too often we conflate urgency with importance–but a lot of things that have immediate due dates aren’t really important in the big picture. This productivity hack is how I manage to skip several assignments and classes per semester and still pull a good GPA in college. It’s all about knowing what’s really necessary and what’s just tripping you up because it’s due.
Important, Urgent tasks are things that have immediate due dates: readings, papers, work stuff.
Important, Not Urgent tasks are things that I need to think about throughout the week or things that support the important and urgent things: looming due dates, health and wellness, personal connections and networking.
Not Important, Urgent tasks are the day-to-day things I should do, but can get away with procrastinating on: blog admin, household chores, adulting errands.
Not Important, Not Urgent tasks are either the things I procrastinate with or things I can take some time procrastinating on: month+ due dates, weekend planning, things I want to read.
If you thought this tip was helpful, check out my main blog at Orphan Survival Guide!
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