This can include: probability of success, impact (outcome or leading indicators), competitive advantage, value alignment, cost, risk, or must-have versus nice-to-have. First, understand how you measure a task’s importance. Next, take some time to define the two axis. If that’s too overwhelming, try organizing to-dos by different projects, teams or spheres such as work, home, kids. Get them out of our head and onto some paper. Start by writing out a comprehensive “to-do” list including the tasks that are the hot topic of every meeting to the ones that keep you up at night. When you need to prioritize your assignments, this matrix can help you decide when you can delegate, eliminate, or postpone the less essential in order to focus on what is mission critical. On one axis is importance, and on the other is urgency. Covey popularized a matrix using these criteria which can be adapted for current conditions. In times of crises (as this is) Dwight Eisenhower, former US President and WW2 General focused on two criteria – importance and urgency. With all of this, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, leaving us unsure of where to begin. And now, just as we might be starting to find a rhythm, we need to layer on plans for some form of re-opening. On the home front, we continue to navigate a myriad of challenges: trying to stay productive, caring for our loved ones, and doing our best to stay healthy. It could be shifting to a remote work experience with our teams, struggling to retain and acquire customers, or ramping up to meet an explosion of demand. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many of us into constant and relentless triage of tasks and assignments. This version has been updated to reflect both Eisenhower and Stephen Covey’s popularization of the matrix. An earlier version of this article attributed urgency and importance to Dwight Eisenhower.
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