The Time Management Matrix

- Doing what matters at work, at home and in life

The time management matrix will help you identify what you really spend your time on. It's a useful tool if you want to know how to prioritize work or personal roles, goals and commitments.

Popularized by Stephen Covey, it's based on the the idea that all your time is spent in a four quadrant matrix. You can't change the size of this matrix -- that's the time that you have. You can significantly alter the size of the four quadrants within the time matrix.

The time management matrix is split into the following four quadrants:

The Quadrant of Necessities - reactive tasks that need to be done, often at the last minute. Crises, 'fire-fighting' and looming deadlines are typical examples.

Time spent in this quadrant can't be avoided, but it can be reduced significantly if you spend more time in...

Quadrant 2 - Important but not Urgent

The Quadrant of Quality - proactive tasks, often habitual, that maintain or improve the quality of your work and life. The more you expand this quadrant, the more you reduce the other three, particularly 'pseudo-emergencies' that should never have been allowed to become so.

Examples include maintaining and building relationships, regular exercise, healthy eating or learning new skills, even the importance of time management itself.

Quadrant 3 - Urgent but not Important

The Quadrant of Deception - plenty of people have gone home in the evening wondering where all the time went. Well, it was here! It's so easy to get sucked into doing things that are the wrong side of the 80-20 rule.

Many meetings, popular activities, easy tasks and interruptions are probably a waste of your time. So, how do you deal with them?

1. Say No.
2. Delegate.

Quadrant 4 - Neither Urgent or Important

The Quadrant of Waste - you know what it is and you know when you've been in it. The trick is to know when you're in it. Often, it starts out as restful time (which is Quadrant 2).

The tipping point comes when you spend too long doing mindless things. Web surfing, TV and excessively long conversations are classic examples.

Wasting time is inevitable, but you can learn how to waste time well.

Final thoughts...

The best judge of which quadrant you are in is you. The more aware you become about everything you do, the better you get at doing what you really want to do.

• How to Waste Time Well (and less) - Define what you do.

• The Pickle Jar Theory - Another way to prioritize your day.

• Back to the top of The Time Management Matrix

• Go from The Time Management Matrix to Time Management Success