How to create a time management matrixĬreating a time management matrix can be both simple and complicated.
He believed we should spend more time on those tasks that are not urgent but are truly important, and free ourselves from distractions.Īlmost 20 years after President Eisenhower’s death, Stephen Covey wrote his best-selling book, which included a variation of the time management matrix. Eisenhower, was known for many quotes, but one of his more famous ones was “ what is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” The 24th President of the United States, Dwight D. However, Stephen Covey popularized the concept further in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Most people trace the origins of the matrix to President Dwight D. Did Stephen Covey invent the time management matrix?
Time management reduces stress, helps produce better work, and in all likelihood, will improve your career opportunities since you’re using your work time more productively than your peers. They start and end on time and ensure they don’t feel rushed by a fast-approaching deadline or random urgent tasks they didn’t foresee. Highly effective people harness their time management skills to focus more intently when studying or working. Time management helps prioritize tasks, so you’re focusing your finite time and resources on the right tasks.Īs an aside - if you need help planning and organizing your tasks rather than prioritizing them, we can help you build the perfect task management software. Time management is crucial if you want to get more of those working hours back. Between using the restroom, checking social media, chatting with co-workers, and the constant barrage of interruptions, there’s not a lot of pure focus time. The average office worker is only productive about 2 hours and 53 minutes each day. Project managers, teachers, and people managers are great examples here.īasically, anyone who could use a system to prioritize and get the most out of their day would benefit from using a time management matrix. You can use it in publicly traded companies, the private sector, non-profits, and government agencies.Īnyone who juggles a large task load would likely benefit most from a time management matrix. Students typically have an enormous task list, as do busy professionals, and parents. It may sound cliche, but just about anyone can benefit from using a time management matrix to help complete their daily tasks. The focusing question you ask yourself each day is, “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” Who should use a time management matrix? In his book, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, Gary Keller uses what he calls a “focusing question” to figure out the most important task. One way to narrow down what’s important is by asking yourself the right questions. Determining task importance is a bit trickier. You’ll often know if something needs completion today, a week from now, or if it doesn’t technically have a due date or sense of urgency. The time management matrix helps you rank an item’s importance and urgency simultaneously and places it in the correct quadrant (more on that in a moment). It’s crucial to remember that not all urgent tasks are important and vice versa. Important means significant or valuable, while something urgent requires immediate attention or action. Its foundation rests on 2 words: important and urgent. It helps identify what’s truly important, so you spend more time on what matters most. In simple terms, a time management matrix is a productivity tool. Get started with What is a time management matrix?ĭefining the time management matrix is a bit tricky since there are so many facets that make it effective. In this article, you’ll learn what a time management matrix is, including who uses them, how to create one, and how makes it even easier to be more productive. One way to do that is with a time management matrix. They have a bias for action, contribute more than is required, and focus more intensely on getting the right things done than doing everything right. They have boundless energy, a work schedule like you’ve never seen, and seem to get more done in a week than you do all month.įor starters, people with an affinity for momentum tend to get more done. Someone in your life probably seems superhuman to you.