Eisenhower matrix or box (aka Importance Urgency matrix) is a prioritization tool that helps you visually divide a task list into four parts depending on the best sequence of action: Do First, Schedule, Delegate, Don’t Do.
Why using the Matrix
A matrix is a great tool to slice and dice your backlog into four parts and gives you a bird’s eye view of all your tasks and their impact. Such clear visual representation is convenient when building plans and strategies.
Who can use the Eisenhower Matrix
Anybody can use the Importance Urgency matrix to prioritize anything from personal to-dos to job duties for best productivity. The matrix can be applied to both daily or weekly tasks and monthly or yearly projects as well.
How to use the Eisenhower Matrix Template
1. Prepare a list of tasks to prioritize
First of all, decide on the task list requiring prioritization. You can get the tasks into the template in 3 ways:
Importing from a task tracker
Importing from a spreadsheet
Writing tasks down into the template
Connecting a task tracker is most convenient as your tasks will always be synced
2. Set up the template for your team
The template has super-standard criteria scored from 0 to 3:
Importance—How important is it for the main objective?
Urgency—How urgent is it? Is there a deadline soon?
These descriptions are too general and hard to estimate. Important for what objective? It means you should at least always keep it in mind. And if you evaluate with a team? Every member will have their own idea of ‘Importance’. In the end, such estimations won’t make any sense.
Pinpoint your main objective your tasks must influence to help you prioritize better. Our templates are fully customizable and we recommend you adjust criteria descriptions.
You use the matrix for your personal growth? State it—‘How important is this task for my self-improvement? Will it help me to master my skills?’
You use it to improve a business metric? Define it—‘How important is it for Acquisition improvement? Will it help us to get more leads?’
Open criteria settings and write what is important for you
3. Evaluate and decide on priorities
You can evaluate all tasks by yourself, but if it’s a team project, it’s best when every team member assigns their scores.
After the assessment, all the tasks will be placed into the four quadrants according to the scores they got:
Do First — high importance and high urgency. Tasks that are important to your goals and cannot be delayed, so you must take action now.
Schedule — high importance and low urgency. Tasks that are important but not burning, and you should allot time for them in the nearest future.
Delegate — low importance and high urgency. Tasks that aren’t that important for the objective but still urgent. Think if somebody can help you with it or if it may be eliminated. If not, it’s better to complete them after ‘Do First.’
Don’t Do — low importance and low urgency. Tasks that are neither important nor urgent. Deleting these tasks from your plans will save your time and efforts.
Quadrant names and emojis are also changeable and you can set them up as it would be more intuitive to you
Inside each quadrant, the tasks are also listed by their significance. You can pick top tasks from several quadrants, or choose one quadrant of focus, expand it full screen, and complete only its tasks.
Expand a quadrant and discuss its tasks if you all agree it’s your priority
But please don’t forget—prioritization is just a tool to help you decide, not decide for you. So if you think that one task is more important than the other and must be done first—so be it. Discuss your priorities with the team. At the end of the day, collaborative prioritization is the best tool for team clarity and shared understanding.
Who and What is the VRDT Content Prioritization Template for
This template is great for teams that need to prioritize content ideas to get more targeted traffic.
VRDT Content Prioritization Template Settings
Note! The template is fully customizable. You can change it for your convenience.
Criterion 1
Name: Volume
Impact: value
Weight: 1
Scores: 0, 1, 2, 3
Description: How much traffic may the content bring? How many people search for the topic?
Criterion 2
Name: Relevance
Impact: value
Weight: 1
Scores: 0, 1, 2, 3
Description: How easily can we convert the traffic? How well can the topic promote us and get customers?
Criterion 3
Name: Difficulty
Impact: effort
Weight: -1
Scores: 0, 1, 2, 3
Description: How difficult it will be to rank? Is our domain rating high enough to rank for the topic?
Criterion 4
Name: Time
Impact: effort
Weight: -1
Scores: 0, 1, 2, 3
Description: How long will it take the team to create?
You can add new criteria, edit current criteria settings, assign them for specific people to evaluate, or delete them completely.
The evaluation results are available in two views: Top Priorities and Matrix. They calculate priorities differently and have different features for decision-making. You can easily switch between the view tabs—they are always available inside any board.
Top Priorities
The Top Priorities page calculates weighted decisions and displays them in a list. The main factor is the weight setting of the criterion as it determines its influence: how positive or how negative. All scores are multiplied by the weight.
The calculation formula in this template is Value and Effort Sum:
The Matrix page calculates non-weighted decisions and displays them in a 2x2 matrix. The main factor is the impact setting of the criterion as it determines its axis: value or effort. The scores are not multiplied by the weight.
On the Matrix page, Volume, Relevance, Difficulty and Time work as filters. Toggle the criteria to count or discount when distributing tasks among the quadrants: Quick Wins, Major Projects, Fill-Ins, Thankless Tasks. You can rename the quadrants at your convenience.
Evaluated content ideas on Ducalis.io Matrix page distributed among quadrants of a priority matrix.
You can use a Ducalis.io evaluation board by creating new tasks in it or uploading a spreadsheet.
You can also connect your team’s task tracker to get awesome benefits.
Task Tracker ➞ Ducalis.io Sync
Connect your task tracker for the automatic sync. Set up the filter once, and tasks inside Ducalis.io will always mirror your actual backlog.
Example of Ducalis.io task filter setting for Asana backlog
Ducalis.io ➞ Task Tracker Sync
If you connect your backlog to sync tasks with Ducalis.io, you can also sync Ducalis.io priorities back. Evaluate tasks and send their ranking to the task tracker to sort the backlog by priority, and for the whole team to see what’s important.
Example of Ducalis.io priority ranking sync with Asana
