We hold a basket of cognitive biases that impede our ability to manage our time and decisions effectively.  

Especially when lives get busy and distracted, it can be difficult to know what to tackle first and why. Sometimes just getting as much off the to-do list feels like the most efficient reward to chase. The simple and elegant Eisenhower Matrix is a time-management tool that helps with prioritizing that with what is important and urgent — so that we may delegate, devolve, or delete what we are working on so we don’t get overwhelmed! 

We often clump the concept of being “urgent” and “important” into the same categorization, however, this matrix shows us they are not synonymous. Urgent tasks are time-sensitive and can either be simple or complex. They tend to command our attention first (especially when people are waiting on us) but often fall into a less important category overall. 

By contrast, more complex, strategic tasks that are aligned with our goals are important and need advancing – but rarely “urgent”. However, we need to bring them higher up on our prioritization list if we are to avoid procrastinating on them.