Today, I find myself surrounded by more opportunities and potential projects than I know what to do with.
Add on top of that all the normal day-to-day tasks and demands of running a business, my intimacy with my wife, keeping up the house, building deeper connections with my friends, and wanting to have some free time for fun…
And life gets “busy” real quick.
During these times, I’ve found many people like to sit down and create an extensive to-do list.
They get everything out on paper and, to be honest, that’s a great start.
BUT unless you take your to-do list one step further you will get trapped.
And that’s because when you make a to-do list you are treating all of your potential tasks equally.
Thomas Jefferson once said - “there’s nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.”
I’d take that and apply it to your to-do list as well - “there’s nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal tasks.”
With regular to-do lists, you tend to drift towards the lowest-hanging fruit to reward yourself with the dopamine kick of crossing something off your list.
The danger with this approach is that you get “busy” majoring in minor things…
You create a to-do list a mile long and start ticking them off without first questioning whether or not they should even be on your list, to begin with.
To help solve this problem, you need a framework. A way to determine what’s worth focusing your precious time, energy, attention, and resources on and what isn’t.
Below is a framework I’ve come to rely on and use whenever things are feeling “busy” or “cluttered” to make sure I’m majoring in major things.
I hope it works for you as well it has worked for me.
Step 1 - Your Eisenhower Matrix
Get out a large sheet of paper and draw an Eisenhower matrix like above (or do it on a whiteboard).
You’ll notice there are 4 quadrants:
Urgent + Important
Tasks with deadlines or consequences
Characteristics
Time-sensitive (there’s a clear deadline)
Adds immediate value
Moves projects/goals forward significantly
Example
Finish sales copy for upcoming product launch
Urgent + Not Important
Tasks that must get done but don’t require your specific skill set
Characteristics
Time-sensitive (there’s a clear deadline)
Does not add immediate value
Does not move projects/goals forward significantly
Example
Schedule social media posts
Not Urgent + Important
Tasks with unclear deadlines that contribute to long-term success
Characteristics
Not time-sensitive (there’s no clear deadline)
Does add immediate value
Does move projects/goals forward significantly
Example
Develop new sales offer
Not Urgent + Not Important
Distractions and unnecessary tasks
Characteristics
Not time-sensitive (there’s no clear deadline)
Does not add immediate value
Does not move projects/goals forward significantly
Example
Most meetings
Now, take your to-do list, write each potential task onto a sticky note, and place each sticky note in the appropriate quadrant.
Note how few actually end up in the urgent + important quadrant.
Step 2 - Do, Schedule, Delegate, Delete
With your sticky notes placed in the appropriate quadrants, now it’s time to either:
Do - these are the tasks you will focus on doing immediately.
Schedule - these are tasks that you will schedule to do in the future
Delegate - these are tasks you will delegate to have someone else do
Delete - these are tasks that will be deleted entirely
Here’s how that looks in your Eisenhower Matrix:
So…
Everything that falls in your Urgent + Important quadrant is a do.
Everything that falls in your Not Urgent + Important quadrant gets scheduled.
Everything that falls in your Urgent + Not Important quadrant gets delegated.
And everything that falls in your Not Urgent + Not Important quadrant gets deleted.
How Did You Do?
I’m curious, how was this exercise for you??
How many potential tasks on your to-do list fell in the delegate and delete quadrants?
Looking back over the past 3 months, have you been “busy” or truly productive?
Drop a comment below and let me know!
Much love.
James
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