Time Management Matrix: Focus on Priorities

The time management matrix is a time management tool that focuses you on your urgent and important tasks.

It's the day before your big presentation at work and you still haven't started! Your report is due tomorrow and there is so much more to do!

"Oh no"...your heart is thumping and the adrenaline is rushing your thoughts...that sinking feeling....you are under pressure again!

"If only I had done this earlier!"

Does this sound familiar?

Many of us have experienced these crises at work or in our personal lives.

There just isn't enough time in the day!

This can be very stressful.

The time management matrix shows you how you can use your time more effectively. What your time wasters are and what time management techniques may be useful for you.

In short, this time management activity can help you to take control!

The time management matrix

The time management matrix gets you to question what is important/not important and urgent/not urgent in your life.

When I first used the time management matrix, my inclination was to do everything in Quadrant 1 - the important and urgent tasks.

Why?

I wanted to do these things first because these were the things that were stressful in my life right now.

These were the tasks that I had to address.

From a tactical perspective, I agree.

However, the more time you spend in quadrant 1 the more stressed and pressured for time you will feel.

That's why....from a strategic point of view.... your overall objective should be to spend most of your time in Quadrant 2 of the time management matrix- doing the important and non urgent tasks.

These type of activities involve planning, relationship building, looking after your health, training and personal development.

That way, you can do those tasks that are most important to you, and assign the right resources and fix mistakes, without the added pressure of urgency.

The question then becomes - how do you move from being tactical (Quadrant 1) to being strategic (Quadrant 2).

By asking this question and acting on it, you can greatly enhance your time management, become more effective and reduce stress levels.

Why not draw up your own time management matrix and ask yourself the following questions.

Important tasks are those that are essential for achieving your goals and living a life of purpose and meaning. I write more about a personalized goal setting plan to achieve this.

Sharing time with your family, professional development and training, socializing, being active and healthy, may be important to your personal and professional goals. Activities that contribute to your vision and goals exist in quadrant 1 or 2.

On the other hand, spending time on routine emails and phone calls, attending some meetings, watching TV, may not be so important to your personal and professional goals. These activities reside in quadrants 3 or 4 of the time management matrix.

A time management activity that you can conduct is to fill out a time management log for a few days and see how much time you spend in each of the quadrants.

Are you reacting to the environment around you or are you doing things proactively?

The way that you answer this question is a good indicator for the amount of stress you likely feel in your life.

Urgent tasks are those that cannot be put off. Phone calls and snap deadlines from your boss are things that you have to do now. The reality is that things will pop up unannounced that will demand your immediate attention.

Non-urgent tasks are those things that don’t demand our immediate attention. They may include making some types of phone calls, watching TV, some forms of socializing, planning your time, setting goals.

Making the time management matrix work for you

From a time management point of view, you want to spend most of our time in quadrant 2, pro-actively pursuing those things that are important to us.

What activities do you do that fall into quadrant 2?

These are tasks that are important but not urgent.

They are prevention-related activities, such as computer maintenance; relationship building; strategic planning, such as training and goal setting; recognizing new opportunities and true relaxation and recuperation activities.

By doing these important tasks in quadrant 2 of the time management matrix, you are able to devote the time that is needed before they become urgent.

However, often urgent things crowd out the important things – it is easy to happen and results in stress and ineffective use of our time.

Moving from Quadrant 2 to Quadrant 1 increases your stress

Do you feel like you are spending most of your time on a treadmill of putting out crises? If so, then you are likely to be spending most of your time in quadrant 1.

What activities do you do that fall into quadrant 1?

Typically these tasks are done because they are urgent, and their importance means they have to be done. This is a stressful use of your time.

Being in quadrant 1 is stressful!

Below is a list of important things that are best done in a proactive way (in quadrant 2), but if you don't attend to these things, then these important things become urgent and may turn out to be crises (quadrant 1).

• build your relationship with family and friends (quadrant 2) if not attended you will have to spend time to repair relationship problems (quadrant 1);
• provide professional development for employees (quadrant 2), if not attended you will need to quickly train employees because of inadequate knowledge to do the job; (quadrant 1)
• exercise and eat healthily (quadrant 2) if not attended may lead to the doctor’s ordering you to exercise and eat well to keep your cholesterol down (quadrant 1);
• plan and work diligently on an essay or exam study (quadrant 2) if put off will result in you cramming the night before (quadrant 1);
• do routine maintenance on computers (quadrant 2) if not attended will lead to having to repair a broken computer and loss in productivity (quadrant 1);
• take time out to relax (quadrant 2) if not respected may result in you taking a sick day from work because you need to de-stress (quadrant 1);

These examples show how important tasks can be crowded out due to urgent and non-important activities, resulting in:

• Lack of control and confidence –you are reacting to the situation rather than planning – this can mean we are not moving towards our goals.
• Higher levels of stress levels that reduced ability to make decisions (research suggests optimal functioning is a relaxed alert state)

Crisis management.

This is an urgent but unimportant task. What activities do you do that fall into quadrant 3? These may be tasks that land on your desk, or an unimportant phone call.

You will find that there are many tasks that fall into Quadrant 3 for you, and it is a good idea to examine whether the tasks have to be done, as more benefit will come from spending time on those things that move you towards your goals.

This type of task is not urgent and not important. Unfortunately these jobs do get done at the expense of more important tasks.

This is because they offer a change of pace, are generally easier to do and have less stress associated with them. These tasks do not move you towards your goals, and could be dropped, so that you can do more value-added tasks.

What activities do you do that fall into quadrant 4?

Use the time management matrix to reduce stress

By now you should have a clear idea that quadrant 2 of the time management matrix is the area that moves you in the most effective way possible towards your goals, whether it is work, study or spending time with your family and friends.

It does this by focusing you on the most important tasks with minimal stress (unlike quadrant 1).

But what time management tools can you use to spend more time in quadrant 2?

If you are like most of the people, you feel pressured by time, so cutting those important urgent tasks are just not an option.

However, you can’t continue to focus on quadrant 1, as it is like "spinning your wheels and going nowhere". You will just spend your day putting out fires, and at the end of the day retreat to quadrant 4.

That is living life by crises to crises!

By spending more time in quadrant 2 you reduce the time you spend putting out fires. This can be done a couple of ways:

1. Consider dropping those things that are not important to you. These time management strategies may be helpful.
2. Building upon your values and the vision of the person that you want to be, through a systematic goal setting plan. This provides direction and helps you to prioritize your time.
3. By setting up a time management schedule, probably best done on a weekly basis, that incorporates your goals and action plans.
4. By knowing what your timewasters. For example, if procrastination is a problem, then take these steps to overcome procrastination.
5. Use time management systems. Time management is about managing yourself in relation to time. These proven time management systems can help you to put in place time management techniques that become a habit.
6. Delegation. One of the most talked about yet underutilized time management skills is delegation. Delegating effectively can train the people around you, boost morale and free up your time for more Quadrant 2 activities. See these tips to effective delegation.

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