Do you know the “I knew it all along” bias? Meaning there are many things in life that don’t seem so groundbreaking after you get to know it, but you actually wouldn’t think of it in the first place. The Eisenhower matrix is one of those things you think it’s so common sense that everybody should be already using it; but if that’s the case, there wouldn’t be so many books and articles on productivity tips!

The Eisenhower matrix is a mental model that uses a task’s importance and urgency to determine actions:

  1. Important + Urgent: you should prioritize and do it now.
  2. Not important + Urgent: schedule time to do it later.
  3. Important + Not Urgent: Delegate to someone else to do it.
  4. Not Important + Not Urgent: eliminate from your daily routines.

No exaggeration, my productivity has soared since using this model to scrutinize everything I do every day.

Using Tableau, I created a tool for you to easily visualize which quadrant a task falls into and help you make some real-time decisions.