Years ago, I read about the Eisenhower Matrix when I was yet again trying to manage my time. Some people call this approach the Urgent-Important Matrix instead of giving a nod to President Eisenhower, but I’m giving the good general my vote. He came up with a tool to help him in making decisions and using his time well.
Recent work on client writing brought it back to memory, which tells you how successful I was at implementing it.
Then I forgot about it—again, for a month—and another client writing project reminded me—again. Perhaps I’m supposed to pay attention because the confusion between what is urgent and what is important is the dominating confusion across our culture and has a paralyzing effect on our ability to do the things we ought to do.
Basically, we focus on and do the wrong things, and this matrix attempts to help us think about things correctly or at least confront decisions on purpose instead of letting procrastination and avoidance decide.
Today, since everything is about productivity and efficiency, it’s been bastardized as a productivity tool, another gimmick to help you be a better workhorse. I don’t mind entirely because I love the idea of productivity though not the idea that my existence is to be a great workhorse. But the beauty of the Eisenhower Matrix isn’t limited to how it increases productivity. We shouldn’t let the life hackers of the world take everything and bend it to the god of production and efficiency. Instead, it’s a tool that helps you understand the craziness in your life and not be drowned by it.
From a generalized productivity standpoint, the Eisenhower Matrix might look something like this:
A couple of obvious points to make:
Important and urgent are not synonymous.
Asking for help is baked into the system.
Saying no is also required.
As I said, productivity gurus are going to have all kinds of tips on how to use this quadrant. They’ll recommend:
Listing the tasks you must do.
Color-coding or categorize your tasks according to the quadrant location.
Limiting the number of tasks you can have in each quadrant.
Separate to-do lists and quadrants for personal and work life will be necessary to accommodate the task limitations.
Those suggestions aren’t bad; they are pretty much how you’d use this tool. But again, they limit this to work and time application instead of a more philosophical application.
What if, instead of tasks or work, you applied the matrix to understanding the things that were causing you stress, harming relationships, or making your life feel as if you are always behind the eight ball?
Think of the dumb decisions we make all the time.
“I could talk to my kids or I could stare at Facebook on my phone.” (Just one example.)
In a high-stress, high-pressure culture, we let the urgent rule our lives. Sometimes it’s important, but often it’s not. Urgent things tend to be reactive, while important things are long-term consequential planned.
One of the reasons I never read Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life is that I do not want a life of being driven. I’m not a driven person, exactly. We use that word so casually, kind of like we use the word “passion.”
I’m decently motivated. I’m interested. I’ll move in a general direction. But I don’t want to be driven because driven people are the animals in front of the cart getting whipped while they pull the load.
I’m a follower of Christ.
I’d like to be guided, not driven.
You might think that’s splitting hairs, but urgency drives decisions while importance guides decisions. Decisions driven by a suddenly urgent scenario tend to set a bad precedence, start bad habits, lead toward more urgent situations, and fall outside of any boundaries we might have set for organizational mission, personal stability, and relational standards.
We can’t avoid the urgent, but whether or not you choose to use what Eisenhower did or something else, you have to make the effort not to be controlled by the urgent. Without a plan, the tyranny of the urgent—the idea that what seems urgent (not necessarily important, just urgent) takes precedence over things much more important in the long run—drives your life.
The phone notification you hear while driving you have to check. The extra hours you just have to put in at work. When you’re driven by the urgent, your whole life suffers.
I’ve always found it a helpful reminder of the many times God tells us to wait before taking action. Wait on the Lord, wait and let Him fight for you, be still.
We need to do that, urgently, because it’s important.
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