What is Urgent Important matrix
Urgent Important Matrix is a decision matrix. We can use it for efficient prioritization of the activities that
we have noted in the To-do general list. Considering the importance and urgency of the things to be done, the
matrix helps us to properly establish what actions we should apply to the tasks. This way we will focus on
developing an efficient way of working with much-improved results.
Who created Urgent Important matrix
Urgent Important matrix is also known as the Eisenhower matrix, because the idea for this matrix came from
Dwight D. Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 - March 28-1969). During a speech on August 19, 1954, he quoted a
colleague as saying:
"I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the
important are
never urgent."
Mention should be made of Dwight D. Eisenhower's extraordinary experience in planning and time management. He
was the 34th president of the United States (1953-1961) and the five-star general in the American army, among
others responsible for planning and supervising the successful invasion of Normandy 1944–45 from the Western
Front.
This quote was later taken up and processed by Stephen R. Covey (October 24, 1932 - July 16, 2012). In his book
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he also states that for effective prioritization you must "Put
First Things First".
"Putting first things first means organizing and executing around your most important priorities. It is
living and being driven by the principles you value most, not by the agendas and forces surrounding
you."
Why use the Urgent Important matrix
If we create a general To-do and randomly perform the listed activities, we may end up in unpleasant situations.
For example, it is possible to deal for the first time with certain activities that do not help us in any way to
approach the set goals. Later, when we get to work on the tasks that would have helped us in this regard, we
will discover that we no longer have the necessary time or simply that we no longer have the necessary energy
because we consumed it with what we did before.
Prioritizing tasks based on the principles of Urgent Important Matrix helps us to avoid precisely this kind
of situation, and to work exactly when and on what we need.
Which are the basic principles of the Urgent Important matrix
Urgent Important matrix, as the name suggests, is based on setting priorities based on the
importance and
urgency of the items in the To-do list. The important ones are those that lead us to fulfill the
established goals and the urgent ones are those that can have undesired repercussions if they are not performed
at the right time.
Considering this, the types of activities that emerge from the combination of the two characteristics that are
considered are:
- Important and Urgent
- Important but Not urgent
- Not important but Urgent
- Not important, Not Urgent
How to apply Urgent Important matrix
For the successful application of the Urgent Important matrix, the following path can be followed:
- Preferably the night before the To-do list is established for the next day. It is advisable to prepare the
list in advance just to improve productivity. This avoids wasting time in the early hours of the morning to
organize and plan the day
- Determine the time required to perform each activity.
- Each activity is analyzed and is included in the Urgent Important matrix in the quadrant related to the
category to which belongs.
- Plan the time intervals for each activity.
- Start the next day with the most important activity.
- Avoid distractions as much as possible and keep the focus on compliance with the plans made
Benefits of Urgent Important matrix
Apart from what is obvious, namely the fact that it helps us to organize and prioritize our tasks better,
the use of Urgent Important matrix brings us some important benefits. One of them is the fact that in time we
get used to making decisions faster. We also become much more objective in analyzing the activities we must do.
Another thing that improves is the accuracy with which we estimate the time we need to carry out certain
tasks.
All this together contributes to a remarkable improvement in our time-management skills.