Eisenhower's matrix

Eisenhower's matrix

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34 U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower were the person very busy. To manage to make more in a day, it created own effective instrument of time-management which is called Eisenhower's Matrix or the Matrix of priorities today. In what a method essence?

What is Eisenhower's matrix?

The idea of a matrix of Eisenhower is in learning to distinguish quickly important issues from minor and those which do not require attention at all. Eisenhower suggested to break all flowing and planned affairs into 4 categories by the principle of urgency and importance. For descriptive reasons he drew a square and divided it into 4 fields. Each of fields contained in itself the list of affairs:

How to work with Eisenhower's square?

Let's consider Eisenhower's square in more detail:

  1. Important and urgent issues. What would you carry in this category? What quantity of urgent and important issues could be written down in this square? Focus is that only then it is possible to call planning according to Eisenhower effective when the very first square is always clean, without uniform record. If you have a list of affairs which you can refer to this field of a matrix, so something prevents your productive work: laziness, lack of self-discipline, inability it is correct to place priorities, etc. All this leads to emergence of works involving all hands that badly affects a mental and physical condition of the person.
  2. Important, but not really urgent affairs. Eisenhower, creating the system of time-management, was sure that this category is the most important. It is timely to place a task here and to undertake its execution — means an opportunity to devote to the solution of a task so much time how many it is necessary. So, for example, the timely address to the doctor will warn a disease, and writing of the student's thesis terms will leave slightly earlier an opportunity for correction of mistakes.
  3. Not really important, but urgent affairs. This field of a matrix of Ezenkhauer is intended for placement here of affairs which prevent effective work and therefore demand immediate elimination. For example, repair of breakage of the computer, the help to the mother-in-law in transportation of furniture to the dacha, etc.
  4. Neither urgent, nor important issues. In a matrix of priorities there is a place and for affairs which we carry out daily to distract from work. These are long phone conversations, viewing series, the friend tape, writing of letters, etc. That is, all those affairs which are pleasant, but not obligatory. Eisenhower, speaking about priorities, called similar occupations "devourers of time" who have negative effect on efficiency of work.

It will be more convenient to work with Eisenhower's square if:

Thus, the matrix created by the president Eisenhower is an effective instrument of time-management which is successfully put into practice already more half a century.

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Author: «MirrorInfo» Dream Team

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