Eisenhower Matrix

Popularized by Stephen Covey in his famous book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the Eisenhower Matrix is a simple framework for considering the long-term outcomes of your daily tasks and making time for what's truly important to you, not just what's urgent right now.

1. Identify each of your tasks as either urgent or not urgent and important or not important. You'll end up with 4 buckets of tasks.

2. Urgent & Important tasks – These tasks have deadlines and consequences for not meeting them. Do these tasks today or this week!

3. Not Urgent & Important tasks – These are the easiest tasks to postpone, but essential for reaching your long-term goals. Schedule these for specific days and times to make sure they happen.

4. Urgent & Unimportant tasks – These need to happen but don't require your specific skillset. Delegate or automate these as much as possible.

5. Not Urgent & Unimportant tasks – These are distractions that don't bring you closer to your goals. Delete, cancel, or (politely) decline these.