You have a huge To Do List and have no clue where to start. Should I start with the most time-consuming task? The first one on the list? The one I like doing the most? The one I dread doing the most? Us ADHDers struggle enough with decision fatigue and task avoidance. We need a tool that helps with at least one aspect of the decision-making process. We need an ADHD strategy, or dare I say ADHD hack to help with productivity. Enter: The Eisenhower Matrix.

What is The Eisenhower Matrix?

The Eisenhower Matrix is a productivity tool used to help one prioritize their tasks to help get stuff done. This Matrix is also sometimes called the Important/Urgent Matrix, Time Management Matrix, or even Eisenhower Box. This tool is credited to Stephen Covey (from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) who took inspiration from a speech given by President Eisenhower. The Matrix is essentially a four-box square, with one axis labeled Important/Not Important and the other Urgent/Not Urgent.

The Four Quadrants

The idea behind The Matrix is to help you prioritize your tasks, separating them into four quadrants:

• Important and Urgent: These are tasks that are crucial to get done and have deadlines or consequences. These are tasks to do first.
• Important and Not Urgent: These are tasks that are crucial or important for you to complete but do not have a clear deadline or a deadline that is pushed out in the future. These are tasks to schedule to do in the near future.
• Not Important and Urgent: These are tasks that need to be completed but not necessarily by YOU. Things need to get done by a certain, impending deadline, but no one cares who or how it gets done. These are tasks to delegate.
• Not Important and Not Urgent: These are tasks that are unnecessary, with no goal and no deliverable. These are tasks to delete.

Examples

I find it helpful, as an ADHDer to see some of these Matrices in action. Here are some examples:

Important and Urgent

• Respond to X client email
• Call plumber for broken toilet
• Pick up prescription
• Write your weekly blog post (due tomorrow)
• Enter your client contact note

Important and Not Urgent

• Complete a work-related course
• Update resume
• Organize your bookshelf
• Sell or donate old clothes
• Vacuum car

Not Important and Urgent

• Plan dinner tonight
• Shred new client intake form
• Water plants
• File
• Call to make vet appointment

Not Important and Not Urgent

• Attend unrelated work meeting
• Join party planning committee at work (when you don’t want to)
• That extra work you gave yourself thinking it would be good for your resume/nice to help out/fun to do but you dread doing it and no one is asking you to do it

Is This Good for ADHD?

As someone with ADHD, I’m always searching for ways to help curb my procrastination tendencies. Traditional productivity strategies are typically developed by and for neurotypical brains, i.e. not ADHD brains. This tool, however, isn’t a “strategy” to be more productive, but a way to help our brains restructure the “typical” To Do List to make it more manageable.

Like any productivity hack, it doesn’t work for everyone. I like this tool because it helps to take the guess work out of prioritizing tasks, which often results in task paralysis for me. By eliminating the barrier that stops me from starting many of my tasks, it allows me to actually get stuff done!

Not only does it help eliminate my task paralysis, but it also alleviates some of the decision fatigue I experience with my To Do List. When I struggle to figure out what to do first, I end up just not doing it at all. This tool helps to take the stress out deciding what to do first.

How I Use the Matrix

Additional Tip

I keep my Matrices until all the tasks on them are complete, or deleted. For example, sometimes I’ll have a task on my list for so long, I realize that it is in fact, Not Important nor Urgent, so I end up deleting it (this happened recently with a training I thought I should create, even though no one asked me to. I eventually realized, this was not something I needed to put on myself, and deleted it from my To Do list). Likewise, you might have something that’s been on your Important but Not Urgent list, and overtime realize it is now Urgent.

The Matrix is meant to work for you. If you want to use this at work to help prioritize your tasks and make life a bit easier, have at it. If you find this works better for you with your home or life tasks, so be it. Or you could be like me and put anything and everything you ever need to do on the Matrix to help you prioritize your life in general. This tool is only helpful if it, well, helps. Tailor it to fit your needs!

Your Turn: Try it for Yourself!

I created a free Matrix Template for you, which includes 2 templates and a sample completed template with real life examples. If you’re interested in grabbing it yourself, click here or the image below!

Have you ever used the Eisenhower Matrix before? Leave your thoughts below!