# Eisenhower matrix, explained

URL: https://gocutline.com/glossary/eisenhower-matrix/

The Eisenhower matrix sorts tasks into four boxes by two questions, is it urgent and is it important: do it now, schedule it, delegate it, or drop it. It is named after US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and was popularised by Stephen Covey.

## What it means
The insight is that urgent and important are different things. Urgent tasks shout; important ones move your goals. The trap is spending the week on urgent-but-unimportant work, while the important-but-not-urgent box (planning, learning, health, building) is where the long-term results are.

## How to do it in a calendar
- When you plan the week, list your tasks and mark each one urgent and/or important.
- Important but not urgent: give it a time block this week. This is the box a calendar is for.
- Urgent and important: do it first.
- Urgent, not important: batch it or hand it off.
- Neither: delete it.

## An example
On Sunday, a freelancer finds that "update portfolio" has been important-not-urgent for two months. It gets two 60-minute blocks on Tuesday and Thursday, and is done by Friday.

## Common mistakes
- **Only ever doing box one.** If everything you do is urgent, nothing important gets planned.
- **Sorting without scheduling.** The matrix only helps if box two gets real time.

## Questions

**Where does the name come from?**
From a line Eisenhower used in a 1954 speech about urgent and important problems. Stephen Covey turned it into the four-box matrix in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989).

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Facts: https://gocutline.com/facts/ · Updated 2026-10-23