This sketchcast is about the Eisenhower matrix, also known as the time management or time leadership matrix. It’s a short 5 minute 30 second video explaining the concept and ways to use it to your advantage.
Eisenhower is not often credited for this concept, yet he is the originator of the quadrants as the people from Google Answers once checked for a curious person (it wasn’t me).
In the sketchcast I mention the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
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Lodewijk, even though the material is not new to me, I simply love the concept of a SketchCast! Very well executed also.
Thanks gtdfrk! I like making them as well and it’s getting easier. But since English is not my mother tongue, I’m sometimes lost for words in the middle of a sentence and I have to start over. Rich Ziade made a rule of “no editing”, and I’m trying to uphold that, but it can be a little frustrating at times.
The sound is higher this time so I can listen. YEAH!
I would suggest speeding up the video were your just drawing and not speaking, it saves the view more time.
These is the same as Stephen Covey’s. Did he just take this from Eisenhower?
I think Covey based it on the ideas of Eisenhower, that’s pretty much what Google Answers is revealing. I guess Covey developed it further into a matrix with the quadrants and expanded the theory with his own ideas and findings. But I like to keep the reference to the original source.
“Say No to unimportant things” is quite easy to say, but how much does this happen in real life?
Of course, all of us would love to say No to every ‘unimportant-looking’ task, but the major problem is that they are so often imposed to us that we have to face them.
Whatsmore, an unimportant and urgent task is indeed important, as if it is not executed right away, the world will explode (or something).
Lodewijk, the concept of the sketchcast is very neat and original! In thinking about time management, I came up with my own four quadrant classification system based on these the following grading system for activities:
1. Essential and Unforgettable
2. Essential but Forgettable
3. Unessential but Unforgettable
4. Unessential and Forgettable
After I initially organized my thoughts like that, I realized it looked a lot like the Covey Time Management Matrix! It is, however, subtlety different in that urgency in my scheme is more a matter of, as you point out, looking ahead and/or calendaring events – not a coordinate used to grade tasks. I thought you might be interested.
BTW, I like how in a more recent post, you label the Covey quadrants as Quadrant of Stress, Quadrant of Value, etc…
Have you ever wonder why Stephen Covey did not give a technical definition of the term “urgent” and “important”?
He only gave one line each in the book, which might be a bit unclear to some readers. If you were to give the two terms definitions, what would it be?
Thanks
Es last blog post..Gift for little Monkey
Hi Lodewijk.
The video is great and I think will be very helpful, for any body but sure for project managers usually faced with urgency.
Thanks.
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What a cool concept, that Sketchcast! I am familiar with Stephen Covey but haven’t had time to read his famous book yet. So I am glad to have come across this blog and learn about the Eisenhower Matrix from you. Thanks for making the topic so easy to understand.
WHat is confusing in this video is that if I move the two lines in the direction you say, I also enlarge quadrant 4. Which is not what should happen.
Q1: things to do ASAP
Q2: Things to plan
Q3: Things to delegate (they might be important for otehr people or other companies)
Q4: Things to drop
(That is why Q4 is only excessive television and not television as taking a break/relaxing is important.)
@Xavier C: Covety has a nice example in his course about a fire team (I think from Chicago) that has put more time in Q2 (preventing fire) then in Q1 (putting out fires)
the result is that they have even more time for Q2, because they have to do less Q1…
If a firebrigade can do less firefighting, we all can.
Hi everybody, I have just released a small online tool to help you managing your todos that way. It’s freely available at eisenhower.me – just in case some of you were looking for such an alternative!
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