The Eisenhower Principle

The Eisenhower Principle

The Eisenhower Principle is a 4-field matrix formed by the axes of urgency and importance.
It has been shown that the assessment of high or low urgency and high or low importance is helpful for prioritisation.

This results in 4 fields:
- Schedule the task precisely and complete it personally
- Do not complete the task
- Complete the task yourself at once
- Delegate the task

How is the axis of urgency to be assessed?

Urgency refers to the time period in which the task is to be completed.
To assess whether the learning content or the activity in question is urgent or not, you can ask yourself the following question: Is the learning content or activity pointless from a certain point in the near future?
Because if the time of completion of a task does not matter, then the task is not urgent.

How is the axis of importance to be assessed?

Importance means the importance for your own goals.
Therefore, the following question can be helpful for you:
Does this learning content or activity bring me closer to achieving my goal (passing the exam, for example)? Is this helpful in achieving my goal?

By classifying the tasks to be done according to low and high importance or low and high urgency, your tasks are distributed to the corresponding fields, and you get an overview of how to set priorities.

Let us now take a closer look at the individual four fields:

Urgent and important:
This means that these things have to be done immediately.
In the process of setting priorities, learning content in this field should definitely be included in your learning plan. These are, for example, the lecture slides, but also sample questions or questions asked in the same exam in the past. In principle, the central contents of the exam.

Not urgent but important:
This field reflects a medium priority.
If something is important to you but not urgent at the moment, you can safely postpone it until later.
In relation to your learning content, this refers, for example, to supplementary textbooks with background knowledge. These are not directly relevant for passing the exam and can therefore be postponed until later.
Everyday activities, such as learning to play a new song on the piano or painting your room, can also be classified here.
Another example is writing the application for a semester abroad. If we assume that the application deadline is after an exam date or a submission deadline, then this application is not urgent at present. But it is important for you personally.
Therefore, you should already schedule now when you are going to write the application.

Urgent but not important:
This field reflects a low priority.
Things that need to be done very soon, but which are not important for your current main goal.
In the context of your learning content, this can refer to detailed knowledge. This is urgent due to the upcoming exam date, but it is not directly relevant for passing the exam. Therefore, you should concentrate on the basic knowledge and not get lost in detail.
Household activities such as shopping or cleaning your room also fall into this field. If you live with a flatmate or partner, they might be able to take over your tasks in the short term, and you can return this favour when your exam is over.

Nicht dringend und nicht wichtg:
Alles, was in dieses Feld fällt, hat eine niedrige Priorität oder ist irrelevant und sollte daher von deinen to-do-Listen und Plänen verschwinden.
Hierbei kann es sich z.B. um einen Exkurs handeln, auf den in einer VL verwiesen wurde. Da dies aber für die anstehende Prüfung erst einmal nicht relevant ist und der Inhalt auch nicht wichtig sein wird, sollte dies zunächst keine Priorität bekommen.
Zudem fällt auch Freizeitverhalten wie ausgiebiges Surfen im Internet, Chatten oder Computerspielen in diese Kategorie. Wenn dir auffällt, dass du generell viel Zeit mit diesen Tätigkeiten verbringst und dich das stört, kannst du vielleicht außerhalb der Prüfungsphase noch einmal mit mehr Ruhe darüber nachdenken und dich bei Fragen dazu auch gerne per Mail an uns wenden.
Not urgent and not important:
Anything that falls into this field has a low priority or is irrelevant and should therefore be removed from your to-do lists and plans.
This can be, for example, an excursus referred to in a lecture. However, because this is not relevant for the upcoming exam and because the content will not be important either, this should not be given priority for the time being.
In addition, leisure activities, such as extensive surfing on the internet, chatting or playing computer games, also fall into this category. If you notice that you generally spend a lot of time on these activities and that this bothers you, you can perhaps think about it again with more calm after the examination phase. Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions on this issue.

To make it easier for you to distribute your tasks to the 4 fields, we have created a worksheet with the Eisenhower Matrix for you.