Another 5-Minute Exercise That’ll Save You Hours

Have you tried the Eisenhower Matrix?

Jul 22, 2025

👋🏽 Hey there,

Ever feel like everything that comes your way is either flagged as “important” or “urgent”?

Emails. Messages. Last-minute calls. Unexpected favours. You’re doing a lot, and yet you’re still unable to complete anything.

That’s not a productivity problem. That’s a prioritisation problem.

Last week, I shared my Value Stream Mapping exercise: a way to sort your life into what brings value, what drains you, and what just needs automating.

But if that felt too abstract, here’s something even simpler: The Eisenhower Matrix.

It’s a fast, visual decision-making tool that you can use right now to stop running full-sprint and get clarity on what actually matters to you.

Not everything urgent is important. And not everything important is urgent.

The Eisenhower Matrix is a 2x2 grid that helps you separate the urgent from the important. Here’s how it looks:

Here’s a text version if the image above isn’t showing up:

              | Urgent   | Not Urgent |
--------------|----------|------------|
Important     | DO NOW   | SCHEDULE   |
Not Important | DELEGATE | ELIMINATE  |

🎯 Try this 5-minute Exercise

Take your current to-do list (or anything that’s swirling in your head right now), and drop each items into one of the four quadrants in the matrix above.

Then for the items in each quadrant, take the following actions:

Important & Urgent → Do It Now: This is both time-sensitive and meaningful (e.g. submitting a proposal, handling a key client issue). Prioritise this.
Important, Not Urgent → Schedule It: This is critical for your growth, but not time-sensitive (e.g. writing, exercising, planning, learning). Time-block it for later.
Urgent, Not Important → Delegate or Automate It: This needs doing but not necessarily by you (e.g. routine admin, logistics, certain comms). Automate it if you can, else delegate it to someone else.
Neither Important nor Urgent → Eliminate It: This holds no value. It’s a waste of your time and energy. So just delete it. (e.g. scrolling, perfectionistic tweaks, unnecessary meetings)

You’ll be amazed at what ends up in that delete box.

In my book, Living Lean, I write about how we confuse “being busy” with “making progress”. This is exactly what the Eisenhower Matrix reveals.

Most of us put all of our tasks into Quadrant 1, and end up constantly reacting, firefighting, rushing, when actually most things should end up in Quadrants 3 or 4.

Fun fact: the real magic happens in Quadrant 2. This is the stuff that matters but rarely screams for your attention. It’s so important, but because there’s no urgency we tend to let it slide.

Quadrant 2 is where your creativity lives. Your goals. Your clarity. Your purpose.
But to get there, you have to stop getting hijacked by everything else.

Try this exercise today:

Get a blank sheet of paper.
Draw the matrix.
Fill it in.
Start prioritising what matters.

Leave a comment using the button below. I’d love to hear:
👉 What was hardest to let go of?
👉 What are you still spending time on that doesn’t deserve your focus?

Discussion about this post

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