If you’re not familiar with it, the Eisenhower Matrix method is a way of prioritizing tasks you need to accomplish. Every task you have fits into one of four quadrants:
URGENT AND IMPORTANT: Prioritize these — DO THEM right away!
NOT URGENT AND IMPORTANT: Add these to the queue and DECIDE when you will do them. Give yourself a deadline.
NOT URGENT AND IMPORTANT: These are tasks that must be done, but they are not urgent or high stakes. These are tasks that you would typically DELEGATE to someone else (if you have someone you can delegate them to that is).
NOT URGENT AND NOT IMPORTANT: Delete these. Immediately. You need that time back, and you are probably running on autopilot if you are filling your days with tasks that aren’t urgent or important.
This system works if you have someone you can delegate tasks to. Before AI, if you weren’t a manager, everything fell on your shoulders. Now, you have an opportunity to look at The Eisenhower Matrix in a new way. Ideally, you should have more time to thoughtfully approach the urgent and important, and tackle even more of the important items that are not urgent and always seem to slip onto tomorrow’s to-do list.
Re-thinking The Eisenhower Matrix in the Age of AI
QUADRANT 1: URGENT AND IMPORTANT
This should be the most human-in-the-loop of your tasks. These are still the items that have to get done right now today. This is also the work that requires creativity, judgement, action, and your critical thinking skills. Use AI where it can help accelerate your efforts, but these are tasks that really need your attention.
QUADRANT 2: IMPORTANT, NOT URGENT
Before, this was the to-do list that is never done. As you get more proficient using AI and automating tasks, you should have more time to spend on these tasks that typically require more time and deeper thinking. Review these tasks to see which can be augmented or accelerated with some AI assistance.
QUADRANT 3: URGENT, NOT IMPORTANT
This is THE BEST quadrant for AI to help you. These were tasks that are the best to delegate if at all possible. Before you find someone to take these items off your plate, take a minute and think if they can be automated. You can delegate them to AI if they are repetitive, predictable, repeatable and/or structured. Not sure where to start? You guessed it – ask AI! Describe the process to your favorite model and ask if it can be automated, and how. You can typically get step by step instructions.
Quick note: investing a few minutes to a few hours up front to automate a task makes sense if it’s re-occurring. If it’s infrequent or one-off, don’t fall into the trap of taking longer to get AI to do it than doing it yourself!
QUADRANT 4: NOT URGENT, NOT IMPORTANT
You should kill this tasks with or without AI. Just acknowledge that they’re neither urgent or important and drop them in the trash. You have other priorities!
As you get better at using automation and various AI tools, many of these non-urgent, unimportant tasks should be filtered out before they hit your desk.
Interested but not sure where to start? Use this article as a prompt! Paste it into an AI tool and ask it to coach you through automating your daily routine, step by step.
