Welcome to your first day of class, Productivity 101!

Episode #1 of the course “How to make better decisions with the Matrix” by Kari Beaulieu

 

Now, let’s just get this out of the way—there are a million and one ways to be more productive. But you don’t have a million and one days to try them all; you don’t even have a million and one minutes to read about them and figure out which one is the best.

 

 

Don’t worry, though, I’ve got you

The fact of the matter is, some of these strategies are better than others. One of these strategies is arguably the best—it’s called the Eisenhower Method, and over the course of the next few days, I’m going to break it down for you. By the end of next week, you’ll be a productivity whiz.

Eisenhower, in Brief

As the name suggests, the Eisenhower Method was developed by president Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower not only served as the 34th president of the United States, but he also commanded the Allied Forces during WWII and became the first supreme commander of NATO. He was a busy guy. One busy day, bombarded with things to do, he noted:

“What’s urgent is seldom important, and what’s important is seldom urgent.”

Thus was born the Eisenhower Method of prioritization.

He drew a box and divided it into four quadrants:

 

1. Critical and Urgent
2. Critical and Not Urgent
3. Not Critical and Urgent
4. Not Critical and Not Urgent

 

Things that fell into box 1 got prioritized. Then, he focused on box 2. Items in box 3 got delegated, and box 4 was tossed out—probably literally, because it was 1954. The Eisenhower Method can be applied to almost any situation imaginable. In this course, I’ll teach you how to use Eisenhower to:

1. Make better choices about what you’re working on

2. Save yourself time by removing unnecessary work from your desk

Using the Eisenhower Method, I’m managing the workload of a marketing team of four almost singlehandedly. My boss loves me—at least, I think so—and I never touch my email on the weekends.

 

 

Convinced yet?

It’s About Making Better Choices

In reality, this magical “productivity” that we all strive for comes less as a result of implementing tricks to gain back extra minutes in the day and more as a result of better decision-making.

When we make better decisions, we become more productive.

You already made one (you signed up for this course), so let’s keep going and learn how Eisenhower can make you even better.

 

Recommended book

“Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen

 

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