Eisenhower Matrix
Two questions per task. Is it Important, meaning something real goes wrong without it? Is it Urgent, meaning a deadline is attached and it’s close? Those two answers put every task in one of four boxes, and each box tells you what to do about it.
Most to-do lists are an inventory of everything. This turns one into a list for today, a list with dates on it, a list of things that aren’t really yours, and a list you can stop feeling guilty about.
Free forever, and no account. Keep as many lists as you like, print the grid, or export it when you’re done.
Also called the urgent-important matrix, the Eisenhower Box, or a time management matrix. Same four boxes, different names.
How it works
The Eisenhower Matrix
Urgent and important aren’t the same thing
A to-do list treats everything as one kind of thing. Renew the insurance sits next to answer Dave’s email sits next to figure out why sales dropped in March. They’re all just lines, so the one that’s shouting loudest gets done first, and the one that actually matters waits until it’s also shouting.
This splits them with two questions. Does it matter? Something real goes wrong if it doesn’t happen, or something real improves if it does. Is it on a deadline? There’s a date attached and the date is close. Answer both and every task lands in one of four boxes, and each box comes with a different instruction: do it, put a date on it, get it off your plate, or let it go.
The idea is usually credited to Dwight Eisenhower, who quoted a college president saying he had two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important, and the urgent were never important. Stephen Covey turned it into the grid people use now. The name changes depending on who’s teaching it: urgent-important matrix, Eisenhower Box, time management matrix, priority matrix. Same four boxes.
Or keep scrolling to learn what each box means, how to run through a list without it taking all afternoon, and what to do once everything’s sorted.
Your lists live in this browser, which is why there’s nothing to sign up for. It also means clearing your browsing data clears them. Use Share to copy the link when a list matters, then bookmark it or email it to yourself: the link carries the whole thing, so opening it later brings the list back, even on another computer.
Reach for it when any of these sound familiar.
- It's Monday and the week is already full.
- You're back from time off and everything landed at once.
- Something new just arrived and you said yes before checking what it displaces.
- You were busy all week and can't point to anything you finished.
- The same small interruptions keep eating your best hours.
Skip it when you’re choosing between ideas rather than working through things you’ve already taken on. That’s a question about value, and the Impact/Effort Matrix is built for it.
Reading the grid
What each box means, and what to do about it.
Do · Important and Urgent
Today's work. It matters, and putting it off past today costs you something. Keep it short enough to finish today.
Schedule · Important, not Urgent
The work that matters with nothing forcing it yet. Give it a date, on a real calendar, because nothing else is going to.
Delegate · Urgent, not Important
Pressing for someone, but not for you. Hand it over where you can, and where you can't, spend as little on it as the job actually needs.
Drop · Not Important, not Urgent
Nothing much goes wrong if it never happens. Write it down anyway and decide against it, so it stops coming back as a thing you might do.
You’ll see these boxes numbered Q1 through Q4 in some books, and called “quadrants” rather than boxes. The tool labels them by what to do instead, because “Q2” doesn’t tell you anything and “Schedule” does.
Using it well
Five steps, and what usually goes wrong at each one.
- 1
Add everything before you sort anything
Type one in and press Add, or use Paste a list to bring in a whole list at once, one item per line. Get everything down before you sort any of it. Anything you add lands in the unsorted pile under the grid.
What goes wrong: Sorting while you're still remembering means the first few get careful thought and the last few get whatever attention is left.
- 2
Set what Important and Urgent mean for this list
Open Setup and write both down. Important usually means something real goes wrong without it. Urgent means there's a deadline attached and it's close. Work and home tend to want different answers, which is the reason to keep them as two lists rather than one.
What goes wrong: Skip this and everything feels like both, because an Urgent thing feels Important for as long as it's happening.
- 3
Drag each task into a box
Drag it, or open it and pick a box from the list. On a keyboard, tab to a task and press 1 to 4. Don't deliberate: your first answer is usually right, and nothing here is permanent.
What goes wrong: Two minutes per task turns a ten minute job into an afternoon, and you'll stop halfway through.
- 4
Check that Do fits in one day
Count what's in it, and compare that with the day you actually have. If it doesn't fit, something in there isn't Urgent, or isn't Important, or isn't yours to do.
What goes wrong: This is the step people skip, and it's the one that turns a sorted board back into a to-do list.
- 5
Give every Schedule task a date
Open each one and pick a day. Then use Add to calendar, so the dates land somewhere you'll actually see them. A date that only exists in this tool is a date you won't see again.
What goes wrong: Sorting feels productive on its own, so it's easy to close the tab here and have changed nothing about next week.
One more worth saying out loud: this sorts work you’ve already taken on. It won’t tell you whether a project was worth starting. If that’s the question, the Impact/Effort Matrix is the one you want, and it works with a team.
Everything’s sorted. Now what?
Sorting the list isn’t the same as changing the week.
Work the Delegate box by category rather than one task at a time. Read down it and ask what keeps producing these. Three invoice questions in a week is one problem that has arrived three times. The tool lets you mark a task as “Stop it coming back,” and it adds the fix to Schedule for you, because that fix is Important and will never feel Urgent.
Leave the Drop box alone. Don’t delete it, don’t revisit it weekly, and don’t feel bad about it. It holds the things you’ve decided against, so they stop taking up room in your head.
Keep a copy somewhere you’ll see it. Print it, or use Share for an image you can drop into a document. A sorted list you have to go and find again is one you’ll end up re-sorting from memory.
Then do it again next week. It takes ten minutes once the list exists, and things move between boxes on their own as dates get closer. If the same task sits in Schedule for a month without a date, that’s worth noticing: either it isn’t as Important as you said, or something is blocking it that you haven’t named.
When the grid looks lopsided
A pile-up in one box usually says more about how you’re working than about the work.
If one box is scrolling and the others aren’t, that’s the finding. Ten things in Do means the sort needs another pass, or the week does.
- Most of it in DoEverything is on fire, which usually means work is only getting attention once it has a deadline. The way out is Schedule: the same tasks, caught earlier.
- Most of it in ScheduleA healthy shape, and the one to aim for. Worth checking the dates are real rather than a way of saying not today.
- Most of it in DelegateOther people's deadlines are setting your day. Look for the two or three that keep returning and deal with the cause, not the instance.
- Most of it in DropNothing wrong with a long list here. Writing something down and choosing not to do it is the point, not a failure.
- Still sitting unsortedItems you couldn’t place are usually too vague to act on. “Sort out the website” isn’t a task. Break it into the first thing you’d actually do and sort that.
Questions
Everything feels Important and Urgent. What do I do?
That's the usual starting point, and it's normally a definition problem. Write down what Important means for you before you sort, then apply it as a test rather than a feeling: if this doesn't happen, what actually goes wrong? If the honest answer is nothing much, it isn't Important, however loud it is. Urgent is easier: is there a date attached, and is it soon? If there's no date, it isn't Urgent.
How is this different from an impact/effort matrix?
Different question. An impact/effort matrix asks what's worth doing, so it's for choosing between projects with a team. This asks what to do with your time now, given a list you're already committed to. If you're deciding which of six ideas to build, use the other one. If you're staring at a list of forty things you've already agreed to, use this one.
Does it save my list anywhere?
In your browser, on your device, and nowhere else. There's no account and no server copy. Clearing your browser data clears your lists, so use the share link or an export if you want a copy that outlives the browser.
Can I put the dates in my calendar?
Yes. Use Add to calendar and you get a standard .ics file, which Apple Calendar, Outlook and anything else will open. For Google there's a second option that downloads the same file and opens Google's import page, because Google has no link format for adding several events at once. Dated tasks come across as all-day events, and importing the same list twice updates them rather than making a second copy of everything. This is worth doing: a date that only exists in this tool is a date you won't see again.
Can I keep more than one list?
Yes. Make as many as you like and switch between them. Work and home usually want different definitions of Important, which is a good reason to keep them apart rather than sorting one giant list.
Can I use it without a mouse?
Yes. Tab to an item and press 1, 2, 3, or 4 to send it to a box, 0 to put it back in the unsorted pile, Enter to open it, and Delete to remove it. Undo and redo work the way you'd expect.
Is the Eisenhower Matrix the same as the urgent-important matrix?
Yes. Same four boxes, different names. You'll see it called the Eisenhower Box, the urgent-important matrix, the time management matrix, or just a priority matrix, depending on who's teaching it. The idea is usually credited to Dwight Eisenhower, who quoted a college president saying he had two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important, and the urgent were never important. Stephen Covey turned it into the grid people draw now.
How often should I redo this?
Weekly is about right for most people. Things move between boxes on their own as dates get closer, so a list you sorted a month ago is describing a month ago.
If the same fires keep showing up, the list isn’t the problem
Sorting your week helps. It won’t fix a process that produces a new emergency every Tuesday. I work with founders and small businesses on that part, and the first 10 hours are free.
Free to use and share. More tools at kienzleinnovations.com/tools.