We all feel pride in saying that we are busy. It gives us a sense of importance and self worth because we feel like we are contributing something and not simply wasting our time. How much work we are actually doing is another thing altogether but still, we are ‘seemingly’ busy nonetheless.

Therefore we hear about a lot of time management tips from experts that can be really helpful if you can follow them to the word. I however, have taken a simple approach in life and that has worked out pretty well for me. Of course, I am not discouraging you from following any sort of time management techniques but I would at least advice you to give this one a try.

Basically, I consider this a task management technique rather than a time management technique because it’s a simple way to distinguish between the several tasks that we all perform in a day. If followed properly, this can also help you immensely to balance your work and personal life. So, what is this technique?

Eisenhower’s Decision Matrix

I have been using this principle for too long now, without even knowing that this already existed as a pretty popular technique to manage your tasks. This particular decision matrix was given by Dwight D. Eisenhower and is perfect if you want something simple to follow.

Basically whatever the task at hand or in the future, all you have to do is decide in which of the four categories that particular task falls in and then you can decide when and how to handle it. Seems pretty simple right? That’s because it is! Let me explain how exactly it works.

So, there are four categories at play.

• Important and Urgent
• Important but not Urgent
• Not important but urgent
• Not important and not urgent

This is also the order of priority that one should take. Tasks that are “important and urgent” like any unforeseen circumstances that need your attention asap, fall under this category and are to be handled first. Sometimes you also have to reschedule other tasks for these ones.

Then come the second type of tasks where they are important for our long term goals (hence important) but they are not necessarily urgent. This may include exercising, creating a budget plan, some quality family time and stuff like that. Even though these tasks are not urgent they come in the second order of priority as they are vital for your longer term goals.

The third type of tasks include what I like calling the “nuisance” tasks. These are not important at all and yet you have to give immediate attentions to them. They can be the number one source of distractions for you and it is better to finish them off as fast as possible.

The fourth tasks are neither important nor urgent and this category is where most people spend their time. Wasting your time on social media and other non-productive things are all included in this one and you should dump them all in this and simply lock this one out as much as possible to increase your productivity.

So, those were my quick words of wisdom for you guys about how to do better task management. I have used this technique and have been using this for a long time. I hope you do the same and let me know how it works out for you. :)