The “Eisenhower Method” stems from a quote attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
Using the Eisenhower Decision Principle, tasks are evaluated using the criteria important/unimportant and urgent/not urgent, and then placed in according quadrants in an Eisenhower Matrix (also known as an “Eisenhower Box” or “Eisenhower Decision Matrix”). Tasks are then handled as follows:
- Tasks in Important/Urgent quadrant are done immediately and personally e.g. crises, deadlines, problems.
- Important/Not Urgent quadrant get an end date and are done personally e.g. relationships, planning, recreation.
- Unimportant/Urgent quadrant are delegated e.g. interruptions, meetings, activities.
- Unimportant/Not Urgent quadrant are dropped e.g. time wasters, pleasant activities, trivia.
This method is said to have been used by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Some good articles can be found here: Productivity Improvement through Priority Decisions by Invajy and
Main Features
- Eisenhower Matrix excel template has 4 quadrants
- Macros that smoothen useful features :
- Promote / Demote a task (will move a task from a quadrant to the other)
- Move Up / Move Down a task (within the same quadrant)
- Mark as complete
- Highlight with a flag (3 colors)
- Archive a task (once completed or at any time)
- Delete a task
Screenshots
Download link
To download this tool, click on the following link :
License
- This tool is free
- It can be modified by the user
- Cannot be redistributed or sold
Compatibility
- PC Excel 2016 : OK
- PC Excel 2013 : OK
- PC Excel 2010 : OK
- PC Excel 2007 : not tested
- MAC – Excel 2016 : not tested
- MAC – Excel 2011 : not tested
Additional details
- Language(s): English
- Revision 2
- 35269 Downloads
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Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks, I like it
Hi,
Very nice template. Thank you!
Two questions:
1- I changed ground and text colour for Decide area from green to blue. When I double click to add a new task, the ground colour turns back to green for the added tasks. I could not find how to fix it form macro. How can I do?
2- Is there Google Sheets template?
Thanks in advance,
Excellent tool. Thank you!
Hi, I really like this tool.
Only have one problem, sometimes when I want to archive task, excel completely freeze and I need to restart it.
Any suggestion how to fix this?
this is really awesome! would it be possible to share how this was made? a tutorial of some sort as i also want to create my own tools someday. thanks!
Hi, very great tool! thanks very much.
How can I can the colors of the cells?
Are you able to copy and paste in new tasks? Also what if you want to have more tasks then the spreadsheets has room for? For example if my tasked move all the way down to the double click on this for a new task button? Thanks
Hi Michael
It is possible to copy paste. I can arrange special one for you if you have many items in your list.
NICE!
Nice template you got there. It’s even got macros which is a great help to me, a first time user of eisenhower’s matrix. Thank you very much.
Hello!
I really like your Matrix, is the most beautiful I have found in the Internet, however I won’t use it because it is not available online from any computer.
Is it possible to have it on Google Drive?
Do you have an Android Application for this tool?
Thank you!