The Eisenhower Decision Matrix & Effective Time Management
Yesterday was my son Julian’s 10-month birthday, which means we’ve been parents for exactly 10 months. One of the biggest challenges over these past months has been learning how to manage my time. Pre-Julian, my time management skills were non-existent. I winged everything and was able to get away with it because of an abundance of time. I candidly didn’t appreciate how much time I used to have. But that approach wasn’t going to work when having to take care of a new baby.
In addition to the new parenting responsibilities, I’ve also needed to balance new habits and hobbies that I picked up since finding out I was going to be a dad. Over the last 18 months, I’ve started practicing Muay Thai, running, meditating, journaling, reading and writing. All these activities help me be more present and in touch with myself, allowing me to show up better at home, work, wherever. They make me a better me
The flipside, of course, is that all these practices require time. Time that I could be spending with my family instead. Finding the right balance has forced me to take a hard look at what I spend my time on every day, prioritize and plan when I’ll do the most important things, and sacrifice things that no longer serve me. Planning my weekly schedule can feel like putting together a jigsaw puzzle fitting all my obligations into 7 x 24 hour days.
Today, I wanted to share a few tips and reflections that have helped me create and manage my time more effectively.
Today at a glance
Use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to help prioritize tasks: Aim to spend the majority of your time on important, not urgent activities. Learn to prioritize and schedule these tasks into your day. Avoid too much time in the important, urgent category (leads to burn-out) and minimize time spent on unimportant tasks.
Know your most important thing. Be clear on your most important priorities. It can be your family, career, whatever. But you need to know so you can prioritize them in your schedule. Take time to recalibrate and ask yourself: Is what I’m doing now serving that most important thing? Adjust your approach if the answer is no too often.
Have a plan. Every day I spend 15 minutes to take a quick accounting of what I accomplished that day and write my to-do list for the following day. I plan out how long I expect those things to take and when I’ll do them, prioritizing the hardest tasks earlier in the day when I’ll have the most energy. I also take time on Sundays to plan out my week at a high level – major priorities, meetings, workouts, etc. This has done wonders for my productivity compared how I used to operate – which involved zero planning and just doing things whenever I felt like it.
Build consistent routines. Routines help build structure and limit daily decision fatigue. We can spend so much time and effort deciding what to do in the moment. Having consistent routines solves this by taking the choice away from us. When you do the same thing at the same time every day, you don’t spend any extra energy thinking, you just do it.
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a super simple decision-making framework that helps prioritize how you spend your time. The idea is to categorize all your tasks into the following four categories:
The goal is to spend the majority of your time on the top right bucket - important, not urgent tasks. By scheduling when you’ll do these, it ensures you are spending time on your most fulfilling projects and limit how many of them because important, urgent tasks (top left) which can lead to burn-out. Minimize any time spent on unimportant tasks by delegating or deleting them. These aren’t worth your valuable time.
I’m a procrastinator at heart. I used to always save things for the last minute (left two quadrants) because I thought the added urgency improved my performance. This was true in the short term but long-term it wasn’t a sustainable way of working. Recognizing this, I use the Eisenhower Matrix to help me be more aware of what type of activities I’m spending my time on. Consistent improvement can only come after awareness of a problem.
Know your most important thing
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”
One of the most important pieces of managing your time well is to know your most important thing. Never lose sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing and have this top of mind whenever you’re planning your schedule.
We live in a culture that values busyness. We wear it as a symbol of how hard we work. But for what purpose? How much of that busyness is just a distraction from your most important thing?
One lesson I’ve been trying to internalize and live by is “less is more”. Rejecting the notion that busier is better, that doing more means you’re accomplishing more. By opting for less, you’re opting for more time, more focus, more presence for the things that really matter. To do this, you need to be clear on what your main thing is, so you know what to say no to.
Your main thing can be your family, new job, a business you’re trying to start. It's for you to decide so you can prioritize them into your schedule.
Have a plan
The Eisenhower Matrix is all about helping you develop and priortize a plan for your time. Having a plan minimizes one of the biggest time wasters. Thinking.
Without a plan, we get so caught up thinking about what we should do in the moment, it takes away precious time and focus from the more important task of taking action. Planning when you should be doing is just another form of multitasking, one of the worst things you can do for your productivity. Stop it.
Instead, set aside time specifically to plan your days. My practice consists of a 15 minute daily power down routine at the end of every work day where I take an accounting of my time spent for the day, review what I accomplished, and make my to-do list for the next day (using the Eisenhower Matrix), including a plan for when I will work on each task. This allows me to jump right into what I need to do every day instead of thinking.
I also set aside an hour every Sunday for a weekly review where I plan my priorities for the following week and visualize the general flow to my days (when I’ll work, exercise, write, etc.) Think of this time as an investment for the future. The amount of time I end up creating for myself far exceeds the initial 15 minute daily and 1 hour weekly investments.
Build consistent routines
Routines are an even more efficient form of planning. It’s a plan you don’t even need to plan. You just do it.
Every morning I wake up before 5 am, giving me 3.5 hours to write, meditate, take care of Julian, walk the dogs and eat breakfast before I head to the office. I try to get home by 6:30 pm every day so I can see Julian before he goes down for the night. The next 3 hours will be dinner, time with Tiffany, another walk with the dogs, and getting ready for bed at 9 pm. I journal, stretch and read for that last hour before I’m in bed by 10 pm.
Every day I try to hit these same checkpoints in the same order. By staying disciplined and accountable to my routines, I ensure that I make time for everyone and everything in my life.
This is just what I found works for me and my circumstances. I’m lucky enough to have job where I’m able and comfortable enough to work out during my lunch break. The point is to find a system that works for you and allows you to be at your best. Build more consistency into your daily approach so you create more time for your main thing.
Of course, things come up, life happens. It’s important to plan but just as important to be flexible and pivot when something inevitably gets in the way.
You know what they say about the “best laid plans”:
“A baby will fuck them up”
Last Sunday, I was about to step out for my weekly long run in the morning, planning to be back before Julian woke up so I could spend the rest of the day with him. Julian had other plans and decided he wanted to hang out with dad at 5 am. Remembering my most important thing, I was more than happy to oblige.
“I am a finger pointing to the moon. Don’t look at me, look at the moon”
This analogy is about finding enlightenment (the moon) by following Buddha’s teachings (the finger) but don’t confuse the finger as the most important thing. It’s just a means to an end.
All my new habits and hobbies are the finger pointing at the moon. They are a path I follow for me to be a better father and husband, my most important thing. But I’d miss the point they take too much time away from my family.
Striking that perfect balance is a challenge. It will only get harder as time goes on and more responsibilities stack up. I try my best but sometimes I will get that that balance wrong. You’re never going to be perfect, but you can always aim to be a little better than yesterday.