Get the productivity you want with the Eisenhower Matrix

Knowing how to prioritize tasks in order to carry them out efficiently and as quickly as possible is important for both a company and a freelancer. The problem is that sometimes there are so many that you don’t know where to start, so you end up procrastinating and reducing productivity. To clarify this doubt, the so-called Eisenhower matrix or the Eisenhower box is used. It’s a simple framework that helps you organize day-to-day work based on priorities.

The operation is as follows:

-Draw out a diagram on paper with a rectangle first divided into two parts. One of them is titled urgent and the other is titled important.

– Now divide each of the parts into two more to distinguish between urgently important and urgently unimportant categories in the urgent part. The same on the important side: important but not urgent and neither urgent nor important.

After the tasks have been identified and classified according to the specified criteria, the tasks must be completed according to this scale. So that:

-If it is urgent and important: begin this task without further delay

-If it is urgent but not important: Try to delegate whenever you have the opportunity.

-If it is important but not urgent: plan and try to meet the set deadlines.

-If it is not urgent or important: Forget it. do not do it

Using this chart will help you to optimize your working hours and their effectiveness. Not surprisingly, the author comes from a man who, as the 34th President of the United States and Army General, became famous for his incredible productivity, among other things.

Other formulas that increase productivity

While it may seem that the working framework designed by the former US President simplifies things considerably, the truth is sometimes the problem isn’t so much the order in which tasks are performed as knowing how to assess their importance.

On the urgent ones it seems we have little say, but on the important ones? Not everything is work. We also have a life that includes family, partners, friends, personal hobbies… Hence other specialists, such as the psychologist and the writer Patricia Ramirezinclude in your recommendations the need to find a balance in your value system.

Knowing what your priorities are in this life and dividing the work up accordingly is important if you don’t want to fall into despair and imbalance. “If family life is first on your scale of values, you shouldn’t be spending 90% of your time at work. You will never be satisfied that way,” says Ramírez.

Another valuable tip from this psychologist is to get used to meeting the deadlines you set for each task. Otherwise, “your brain learns to scatter when you have to teach it to be effective. A distracted brain is far more exhausting than a concentrated one.