Eisenhower Method matrix

The Eisenhower matrix is a way for prioritizing your tasks, which has been intended by Dr. Eisenhower.

Eisenhower was the 34th president of America.

The method sounds pretty simple, but I see one flow of this method: you can’t categorize things as important or not important, some of them are of a medium urgency. Also, what could be so urgent as to interrupt whatever you are doing (and your sanity) to dedicate your time.

Unless, the building is on fire, I wouldn’t interrupt what I’m doing to dedicate my time to something else which others say that it’s urgent.

The Daily-Weekly-Monthly-Yearly Productivity System

This method also brings me to the classical question in time-management: a to-do list or a schedule To be sincere, I personally prefer a schedule. Like I mentioned, I can’t imagine what could be so urgent that you have to postpone your schedule. I personally, use another time management system which I have invented myself. The way this system works is pretty easy: I categorize every task which comes my way into four categories with their specific scheduled times:

1. things that have to be completed daily – 8.30-10.30 am
2. things that have to be completed weekly – 11.00am-1.00 pm
3. things that have to be completed monthly – 1.30-3.30 pm
4. things that have to be completed yearly – 4.00-6.00 pm

I put unexpected tasks which have to be done every year or once in the 4th chung of time. This way I solve the problem of urgent tasks.

If the task is urgent and has to be done monthly, I put it into the time chung dedicated to monthly tasks and I set a repeat monthly into my calendar, so that next month it will not be urgent but planned and taken care of in the right time.

Why the DWMY Method is Better than the Eisenhouer Matrix

The DWMY method stands for daily-weekly-monthly-yearly method.

Most tasks have to be done on a regular basis and they become urgent when you procrastinate. When an urgent task arises the best thing to do is not only to do it immediately, but also become proactive and try to predict when it will arise again and how to be prepared for that next time, so that you’ll not face the stress of a task being urgent.

That’s why I not only complete an urgent task when it arises but I set it on my calendar the activity to repeat on my schedule to be prepared for the task next time it arises. There’s an option to do this on Google Calendar. That’s why I love Google Calendar so much.

Everyone knows the tasks that they need to do every day or week on their job. But sometimes your boss might ask you to do something else outside of what you regularly do and insist that it is urgent.

In fact these are the cases in which someone else didn’t do their job or they procrastinated so much that their job has become a problem for a whole department. In case, it’s not your fault and don’t fall for this trap when they say that it is urgent. If you know what your daily tasks are and you did them on a regular basis, don’t stress yourself, just tell them that you are going to complete that job within one day or two or more if it takes more than two hours.

There are cases when someone sends you a relation very late and you have to work on that and they claim that it’s urgent, but it’s not your fault if the project is late, so don’t stress yourself too much. Sometimes a little rest can make you more productive.