There are many situations that occur daily that we consider “important”. But there comes one major issue. We are unable to differentiate between what is important and what is urgent. Every day we are bombarded with tasks that keep us “busy” but are not necessarily helping us achieve our end goals. As a result of this, we get stuck in the hamster wheel of life and just keep running in circles, until now.
Urgent: Tasks that need to be dealt with immediately and are extremely pressing.
Important: Tasks the contribute to your long-term plans and goals.
The Urgent-Important Matrix
A great framework for decision making appeared over a half-decade ago from Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States. The Urgent-Important Matrix is a simple approach to make sense of how to organize any task or undertaking so that the most important ones don’t fall by the wayside to the sudden, surprising, and urgent ones.
The concept is based on the idea that the majority of your tasks can be arranged into four quadrants, with tomahawks of Important and Urgent on either side. These four quadrants are given number estimations of 1 through 4 in view of their need.
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Q1) Urgent & Important: Tasks that are pressing and but also contribute to your long-term goal.
Q2) Important & Not Urgent: This is the most important quadrant. Tasks produced in this area create the highest quality work that will contribute to your long-term goals.
Q3) Not Important & Urgent: These are tasks that usually could have been avoided if prepared properly. These tasks add significant amounts of stress while producing little reward when completed.
Q4) Not Important & Not Urgent: This quadrant is a great place to rest and rejuvenate before you get back into action. It is crucial to not spend an extended amount of time in this quadrant as it can lead to laziness, procrastination, and even depression.
How Do We Make Decisions?
The Eisenhower Matrix is a basic system that encourages you to break out of the mutinous grind and to start delegating your tasks. The more in control you are of your schedule, the more confident you will be and thus, produce better results.
Research has shown that basic decision-making is deeply attached to emotion. Your cerebrum which is portrays sanity and leadership is connected to your amygdala, the piece of your mind related with feeling. They work in cooperation with each other.
This implies that your ability to improve the over quality of your life is fully within reach. You have the ability within you to take control of your schedule which will ultimately improve your overall happiness. That is the reason receiving a structure like the Eisenhower Matrix to help you triage your undertakings or choices you have to make, is a simple approach to increase your overall success.
This article was written and produced by Natu Myers
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