eisenhower-matrix

name	eisenhower-matrix
description	Prioritize tasks and decisions by mapping urgency against importance — use when facing competing demands and unclear where to focus first
argument-hint	[list of tasks, decisions, or competing priorities]
user-invocable	true
license	MIT

Sort competing demands into four quadrants based on urgency and importance. Clarify what to do now, schedule, delegate, or eliminate. Prevents urgency from crowding out what actually matters. 1. List all tasks, decisions, or demands competing for attention 2. For each item, assess: Is it urgent? (time-sensitive, external deadline) 3. For each item, assess: Is it important? (contributes to goals, high impact) 4. Place each item in the appropriate quadrant 5. Define action for each quadrant (do/schedule/delegate/eliminate) 6. Identify items that feel urgent but aren't important (the trap) 7. Commit to specific next actions for quadrant 1 and 2 items

<output_format>

Eisenhower Matrix: [Topic]

Items to Prioritize

[Numbered list of all items]

Matrix

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	Q1: DO NOW	Q2: SCHEDULE
Not Important	Q3: DELEGATE	Q4: ELIMINATE

Quadrant Assignments

• Q1 (Do Now): [items]
• Q2 (Schedule): [items]
• Q3 (Delegate): [items]
• Q4 (Eliminate): [items]

Key Insight

[What's crowding out the important-not-urgent work?] </output_format>

## Eisenhower Matrix: Sprint Planning Priorities

Items to Prioritize

1. Fix production login bug (users locked out)
2. Write Q2 architecture proposal (due in 3 weeks)
3. Review 4 pending pull requests
4. Update team wiki with onboarding docs
5. Respond to vendor demo scheduling emails
6. Refactor auth module (tech debt)

Matrix

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	Q1: Fix login bug	Q2: Architecture proposal, Refactor auth
Not Important	Q3: Vendor emails, PR reviews	Q4: Wiki updates

Quadrant Assignments

• Q1 (Do Now): Fix production login bug — users are blocked, revenue impact
• Q2 (Schedule): Architecture proposal (block 2hrs Thursday), Auth refactor (next sprint)
• Q3 (Delegate): Vendor emails (admin can schedule), PR reviews (assign to senior dev)
• Q4 (Eliminate): Wiki updates — onboarding isn't happening this quarter

Key Insight

PR reviews feel urgent because notifications pile up, but they're not important enough to displace the architecture proposal. Batching reviews to end-of-day prevents them from fragmenting deep work on Q2 items.

Key Instructions

• "Urgent" means time-sensitive with an external deadline, not just "feels pressing right now."
• If the user's list has more than 10 items, group related items before applying the matrix.

Anti-Pattern Guards

1. Over-filling Q1 — if everything lands in "Do Now," the assessment needs recalibration; most perceived Q1 items are actually Q3 urgency traps.
2. Letting urgency displace importance — the most common failure is Q3 items crowding out Q2; step 6 surfaces this explicitly; always call it out.

Handoff

Chainable to: pareto (to find the highest-leverage Q2 items), one-thing (to identify the single most important Q2 action)