How I Use The Eisenhower Matrix To Prioritise My Work

I like that matrix. Very helpful.

Smart! I will start thinking about this when I choose priority levels on my tasks in Todoist.

Excellent topic and video ! 🔥 ❤ Using apple notes to do Eisenhower is my goal. Would love to se a video on that down the road...

Great Quality Video Carl ! I still try to follow all your content.

setting up a calendar appointment for me is easier to honor when it’s with someone else (client, doctor etc). keeping the appointments with myself i find is more challenging and requires more discipline. id like to learn how Carl manages this.

You brought the Eisenhower Matrix to life so well. When I was working my life revolved around quadrant 1 to the extent that other important activities fell by the wayside. Exercise is a good example. From being a gym rat, I stopped going six years ago as I couldn’t rationalise being in the gym when I ‘knew’ I should be at my desk early / over lunchtime etc. Poor decisions soon become the new normal.

good videos. I speed it up by 75% to save time waiting on the next words. still intelligible, and that is my productivity hack. good work. thanks. ( no kidding.. I like the content but it is way too measured a pace for me. )

Hi Carl,
Quick question, have you stopped using ToDoist? I’m asking because lately you’ve been emphasizing more on working with Calendar. Many Thanks Kind Regards, Sumudu

Carl, excellent, clear, and concise explanation. I enjoy the practical information you produce and publish.

Carl, you say that if any email comes to you that says "Hello, Hi, Hello Mr Carl Pullein" or something like that, you're not going to respond because that's just an automated copy and paste email. I feel like most emails start with some form of greeting, so I tend to read a little further to figure out if it's personalized. I also send out personalized emails which start with the words "Hello" and "Hi" but I don't send copy/paste, automated emails. Am I missing a way to create emails that look more personal?

Great video Carl. Keep up the solid work.

@Carl - Great video as always. Just want to know status of the time sector book you were working on , eagerly waiting for the same.

Hi Carl, I like how you never come across as authoritative in these videos. I would love to hear more on how your productivity systems fit with you personal life/relationship.

So if you schedule categories from quadrant 2 in calendar, tasks related to this events do not have to be prioritized. I have to focus only on those tasks related and everything else should wait. I personally created calendars naming those by areas of focus and in my reminders i use tags with same names and i’ve created smart lists so if it’s personal development time i open related list in reminders and do only those tasks. It's all dynamic, all i have to do is use one tag when i do my daily planning session. It’s improve my productivity. Thank You Carl for life simplifying, good tips and reminding us that we are all different.That is a clue to good productivity, not just copy your ideas but adjusting them to our individual preferences.

Incredibly helpful!! Thank you!

Is there a way to get this Eisenhower Matrix view on Todoist or do you just sort your to do's by priority from p1-p4?

Carl , 10 things that differentiate Eisenhower matrix AND. ABCDE prioritisation method. Just give 1,2,3,4,.........10. urgent.

Been thinking about this all day today. **"I want to make that (customer service) as personal as I possibly can, which means I am not going to automate customer service." ***
One of the biggest takeaways as a 26-year business owner in a stage where I am becoming more of a manager/leader/equipper is when you mentioned that customer service is urgent and important, because to you, clients, customers, students are always quadrant 1 - customer service is priority #1. "I want to make that as personal as I possibly can, which means I am not going to automate customer service." Wow, I appreciate that! With all the automation I am working on and all the buzzwords around "scaling" etc. and feeling like I am a failure if I do not do all these automated things... I am so aware of the concern of watering down the soup. The essence of who I am, how I built this business for decades, and the level I want service to continue. I will use automation etc. but I will not "automate customer service. I love it and that resonated so much with me! Thank you!! So to strike the balance of being viable, offering digital options as a convenience to the client but not as a substitute or low-cost imitation replacement for customer service. This was not even the topic of the video but spoke to me big time. So much so that I got in the trenches and did some one on one service work in my business today. I felt so connected. So grassroots. So .... ME! Little side comments are sometimes the big takeaways. Though I am a long-time Steven Covey / 7 Habits guy. My dad introduced me to it in about 1995. and I LOVE the Eisenhower matrix! So all this was so good. Thanks again, Carl! :)

I start out listing the roles in my life in order of imporrtance 1) Child of God; 2) Husband/Father/Brother; 3) Colleague; 4) Citizen

Under each of those roles, I list the values associated with those roles, habits (monthly, weekly, daily) that I need to develop or maintain. I may also add a goal to meet.

On my task list, only tasks that contribute to one of those values, habits, or goals are important. Everything else is not important.

My classification of urgent vs not urgent may put some things that are Quadrant II items for some people into Quadrant I. I like to keep it simple: Is there a deadline with negative consequences for not meeting it? If the answer is "yes" then it's "urgent", even if it doesn't need to be done right now. If the deadline is far out, then I set an appointment for myself ar enough ahead of the deadline. If there is no deadline, then it's not urgent.

I keep my master list up frontb in my planner and migrate the list to my weekly and daily pages.

This is a great video. So practical and relevant. unlike other videos on the Eisenhower Matrix and other methods, you made it seem organic and personal. Thank you!

Great video! I learned this from stephen covey about 15 years ago. Drastically changed the way i prioritize things. I combined stephens system with Davids allens GTD system. ( a sort of hybrid)I still use it to this day. It isn't perfect but pretty close and i haven't found anything better yet. if your doing any kind of creative thinking work i would highly recommend some type of zettlekasten system. it will save you time in the long run. The one criticism of this is that it doesn't account for resources, complexity, or level of effort a task requires.

What app do you use to track of this quadrants ?

Excellent presentation, thank you!

These examples make this exercise more easy to understand and apply than in the Stephen Covey’s book. May I ask what calendar do you use?

Thanks

Is it really that healthy to be working based on a number?

Awesome take on it!

Carl, thank you for giving practical examples of how to use the Eisenhower Matrix! I understood the general idea of the matrix before, but not how to effectively use it in my daily planning. 🙏🏻

Hi Carl, thanks for the very down-to-earth explanation of the matrix. I've kind of used it before and know how to apply it, but somehow it doesn't become ingrained. Do you use it daily? Any tips on how to make sure to keep using it?

Excellent video. Couple things I was left wondering about (maybe I missed you addressing them). (1) How do we manage the movement of items from one category to another -- e.g., emails that shift from "not important" to "important"? Or from "not urgent" to "urgent"? I am trying to conceive of that workflow. Otherwise, I just set things in boxes and then...what? (2) How to marry this matrix to Apple Reminders (or some other tool).

beautiful

This was the best explanation of how to use the Eisenhower matrix that I have run across, at least for me. Over the years I have tried the Eisenhower matrix a few times. But finally came to the conclusion several years ago, that it was a counter-productive tool for me due to my tendency to overthink things. I realized I was spending too much time deciding what went where every time I tried using it, I swore off ever using it again, acknowledging it was a great tool for a lot of people, but not for over thinkers. However after watching your explanation and clear cut examples, I could see myself using it - with little to no time needed to know what goes in what quadrant - especially Quadrants 2 and 4. I can’t believe I am actually looking forward to using the Eisenhower matrix in my next weekly planning session, after I thought I was done with it for good. Thank you 😊.

So so helpful! I excuses!

It finally makes sense! Thank you for this video!

So doing taxes billing and other white collar stuff is box 2

Great job on this. Thank you. It is appreciated!

Thanks for redefining Q3! I now need to ensure my colleagues at work fall into this segment. My direct team members, the ones working on projects with me stay in Q2 and sometimes can qualify for Q1.

Did Covey take this from Eisenhower? Didn't know that.

This video really opened my eyes! I learned that quadrant 2 tasks, though not urgent, are incredibly important for growth and should be scheduled to become non-negotiable. I also didn’t realize how sneaky quadrant 3 tasks can be. They seem urgent but can actually waste a lot of time! Setting boundaries, like not responding to certain emails, can save so much stress. Lastly, I love the idea of training people on how to communicate better with you. It’s all about taking control of your time! Thanks for sharing these insights!

very good