Is It Urgent, Important, Neither Or Both?

Most importantly, how do we know?

The Eisenhower Method, mostly known via the Eisenhower quadrant (see picture), is a helpful way to tackle one of the most complex problems we can solve: prioritising tasks or — especially in the modern world — prioritising where we focus our attention.

The method is named after the USA’s 34th president, who quoted a former college president saying that problems can be urgent or important, but not both. The method, however, is much more intricate than the binary choice the former president alluded to: problems can indeed be important but not urgent, urgent but not important, but they can also be both important and urgent. We then add a fourth box for problems that are neither urgent or important, but these don’t seem to me like problems at all.

When I think of something that is not urgent but important, I think of planning. I can plan a studio session in my computer and set all the mics and instruments before we begin to record. When all is set, recording is a breeze. When nothing is set, creating the session and setting up the mics become urgent tasks, with impatient musicians breathing down my neck or stomping their feet. We can plan for all that we want to achieve this year, which isn’t an urgent task, but will avoid urgency when December comes with our annual…