Eisenhower Matrix Generator
Sort a list of tasks into do now, give it a date, hand it over and let it go, from an urgency mark and an importance mark.
Results
What this tool does
The method is older than every productivity app and survives them all: judge each task twice, once for how urgent it is and once for how important, and the two answers put it in one of four boxes. What is both goes first. What is important but not urgent gets a date in the diary, because it will never demand one. What is urgent but not important is somebody else's, if you can make it so. What is neither is not a task at all. Write your list, pick where the line falls, and the sorting happens here.
Formula
each task goes to one of the four quadrants, depending on whether urgency and importance are above or below the cut-off
Variables
| Symbol | Meaning | Unit |
|---|---|---|
tasks | Tasks, one per line: name = urgency, importance | — |
cut | From this mark up counts as high | — |
OUT | Start with | — |
TB | The four boxes | — |
D1 | 1 · Do now | — |
D2 | 2 · Give it a date | — |
D3 | 3 · Hand it over | — |
D4 | 4 · Let it go | — |
NT | Tasks | — |
Worked example
- Tasks, one per line: name = urgency, importancePay the rent = 9, 9 Learn French = 2, 8 Answer that email = 8, 3 Watch the new series = 1, 1 Book the dentist = 6, 7 Tidy the inbox = 7, 2
- From this mark up counts as high5
- Start withPay the rent
- The four boxes1 Pay the rent u9 i9 1 Book the dentist u6 i7 2 Learn French u2 i8 3 Answer that email u8 i3 3 Tidy the inbox u7 i2 4 Watch the new series u1 i1
- 1 · Do now2
- 2 · Give it a date1
- 3 · Hand it over2
- 4 · Let it go1
- Tasks6
Limitations
- The calculation runs entirely in your browser. The values you type are never sent to a server.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between urgent and important?
Urgent means it is shouting at you now; important means it changes something that matters to you. Most of what feels pressing is urgent and unimportant — other people's deadlines, notifications, the inbox — and most of what actually moves your life is important and never urgent, which is why it waits forever. Separating the two on purpose is the whole point of the exercise.
Everything landed in the first box. Now what?
Raise the cut-off. If a five out of ten counts as high, most things will, and a matrix where everything is urgent and important is telling you nothing. Try seven or eight: the question is not whether a task matters at all but whether it matters more than the others on the list, and that only becomes visible when the bar is set high enough to exclude something.