Page 24 - Planning And Prioritizing Time Management Manual

Quadrant 3 – urgent but not important

The third quadrant summarizes items that appear to have a high urgency but are not at
all important. Some of these activities might be entirely ego-driven, without
contributing any value. In fact, these activities are obstacles that stand in-between
you and your goals. If possible, try to delegate these items or consider rescheduling
them.

If another person is causing you quadrant 3 tasks it could be appropriate to decline
their request politely. If this is not an option, try to avoid being constantly interrupted
by appointing timeslots to those that often need your help. This way, you can address

all their issues at once, without regularly interrupting your concentration.

• Interruptions

• Meetings

Quadrant 4 – not urgent and not important

The fourth and last quadrant contains all those activities that do not contribute any
value at all—the obvious time wasters. All the activities contained therein are

nothing more than distractions; avoid them as much as you can. You should also try to
eliminate all the items in this list, no matter how entertaining.

• Trivia

• Time wasters

• Surfing the Internet without purpose

• Watching TV for hours

How to apply the time matrix?

When using the Important-Urgent matrix it is recommended to try to maximize the
time spent with quadrant II activities. This will allow you (in the long run) to reduce
quadrant I activities, as many of them could have been quadrant II activities—if
better planning had been implemented.

The objective of using the time management matrix is to question whether a certain
activity brings you closer to your goals or not. If this is the case, these responsibilities
need to be prioritized over those tasks that might demand your time but do not
contribute to your goals. Delay activities that do not contribute any significant
output until more important tasks are finished.

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