In my recent articles about project overload, I discussed how businesses often find themselves drowning in multiple initiatives, forever fighting fires rather than making meaningful progress. This reactive approach isn’t just frustrating – it’s fundamentally flawed. It reminded me of a brilliant observation made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent”
This simple yet profound insight forms the basis of what we now call the Eisenhower Matrix – a powerful tool for both personal productivity and project portfolio management.
The Urgent-Important Trap
If you’re like most professionals I work with, your typical day might look something like this: You arrive at work with clear intentions to progress that strategic planning document, only to be bombarded by urgent emails, unexpected issues, and the dreaded “quick five-minute meetings” that eat up your entire morning. Before you know it, you’re taking your lunch break at 3 PM, and that important strategic work remains untouched.
Sound familiar?
In project and programme management, this pattern becomes even more pronounced. Teams bounce from one urgent deadline to another, while truly important strategic projects – the ones that could transform the business – get perpetually postponed.
Breaking Down the Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix splits tasks into four quadrants, each requiring a different approach:
1. Urgent and Important (Do immediately)
These are your genuine crises and critical deadlines. The trick here is to handle these efficiently while asking “How could we have prevented this crisis?”
2. Important but Not Urgent (Schedule)
This is where real value creation happens. These tasks require protected time in your calendar. Without deliberate scheduling, they’ll never get done – until they become urgent and move to quadrant 1.
3. Urgent but Not Important (Delegate)
These tasks often feel urgent due to others’ expectations but don’t contribute significantly to your core objectives. The key here is to develop systems and empower your team to handle these without your direct involvement.
4. Neither Urgent nor Important (Eliminate)
These activities often creep into our workday unnoticed. Be ruthless in identifying and eliminating these tasks – they’re stealing time from more important work.
Applying the Eisenhouwer Matrix to Projects
When evaluating projects using this framework, consider:
Urgent and Important Projects
- Required regulatory changes
- Critical system upgrades
- Essential security patches
- High-priority customer commitments
Important but Not Urgent Projects
- Digital and AI transformation initiatives
- Process automation
- Team capability building
- Market expansion planning
Urgent but Not Important Projects
- Nice-to-have features demanded by a vocal minority
- Changes driven by internal politics rather than business value
- Quick fixes that don’t address root causes
Neither Urgent nor Important Projects
- Pet projects without clear business cases
- Initiatives that don’t align with strategy
- Projects continued purely due to sunk cost fallacy
The power of this categorisation comes not just from identifying where projects sit, but in challenging our assumptions about urgency and importance. Often, what feels urgent is merely someone else’s poor planning becoming your emergency.
Beyond Personal Time Management
While the Eisenhower Matrix is commonly presented as a personal productivity tool, its real power emerges when applied at an organisational level. Let me share a real example:
One of my clients, a financial services firm, was struggling with over 40 concurrent initiatives (as detailed in this case study). When we applied the matrix thinking to their project portfolio, something interesting emerged: about 60% of their “urgent” projects weren’t actually important to their strategic objectives. They were simply urgent because someone said they were.
Practical Application in Project Portfolio Management
Here’s how to apply the Eisenhower Matrix thinking to your project portfolio:
- Audit Your Current State: List all your initiatives, including those “quick wins” and “side projects” that consume resources.
- Challenge the ‘Urgent’ Label: For each initiative marked urgent, ask:
- Why is it urgent?
- What happens if we delay it by a month?
- Does it align with our strategic objectives?
- Identify True Importance: Important initiatives typically:
- Align with long-term strategy
- Build fundamental capabilities
- Address root causes rather than symptoms
- Take Bold Action: Be prepared to:
- Stop projects that land in quadrant 4
- Delegate or automate quadrant 3 items
- Schedule and protect time for quadrant 2 initiatives
- Handle quadrant 1 items efficiently
The Cultural Shift
The real challenge isn’t creating the matrix – it’s changing how your organisation thinks about urgency and importance. In my experience, this requires:
- Regular portfolio reviews using consistent criteria
- Strong leadership to protect important but non-urgent initiatives
- Clear communication about why certain projects take precedence
- A willingness to say “no” or “not now” to urgent but non-important requests
Breaking the Cycle
Remember that financial services firm I mentioned? By applying these principles, they reduced their active initiatives by 40% and saw completion rates improve dramatically. More importantly, they broke free from the constant firefighting mode and started making real progress on strategic initiatives.
Moving Forward
The next time you feel overwhelmed by projects and initiatives, pause and ask yourself: Am I busy with urgent tasks or important ones? The answer might surprise you – and more importantly, using the Eisenhower Matrix might just help you break free from the cycle of initiative overload.
If you’re struggling with project overload in your organisation, you might find my Project Health Check Tool helpful, or reach out for a free consultation where we can discuss applying these principles to your specific situation.
Remember, the goal isn’t to do everything – it’s to do the right things right.
Paul Every
Assurify Consulting, Jersey
I specialise in project assurance, governance, PMO and ‘technology enabled change’; helping clients obtain greater value from their investments in projects, programme, portfolios and technology.
My clients choose to work with me because I am a pragmatist; I recommend and deliver solutions that can be easily implemented. You also get what you see – I will define what you need, then it will be me who is on site helping you deliver your change.
Leave a Reply