RICE Feature Prioritization

What is the Eisenhower Matrix

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:

1. Importing from a task tracker
2. Importing from a spreadsheet
3. Writing tasks down into the template

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?’

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.

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.

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.

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