The Eisenhower Matrix

Published October 21, 2026.

The Eisenhower matrix sorts your tasks into four boxes by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important? It is good at clearing the noise. Its weak spot is the box that matters most, important but not urgent, because nothing in that box ever asks for you. Reverse journaling gives that box a date and a first step.

Use the free tool: the reverse planner

The Eisenhower matrix sorts tasks by urgent and important into four boxes: do now, schedule, delegate, delete. It tells you what to drop. It does not tell you what belongs in the important box, or when you will start it. Reverse journaling fills that box from the goal written as done, then turns the next step into a 45 minute sprint with a time.

The short answer

The Eisenhower matrix is a sorting tool. It takes the list you already have and splits it by urgency and importance. Reverse journaling is a planning tool. It starts from the finished goal and works back to this week, so the important box holds the work that moves that goal, with a date on it. Sort with the matrix, plan with reverse journaling, and start the important step first.

Side by side

Question	Eisenhower matrix	Reverse journaling
Starts from	The tasks already on your list	The goal written as done, with a date
Main output	Four boxes: do, schedule, delegate, delete	Milestones back to one step for today
Answers	What can I drop or hand off?	What moves the goal this week?
Time horizon	Today and this week	The goal date back to today
Check in	When the list gets long	One line each night
Main risk	Important work scheduled and never started	A good plan with no start time

Where the matrix comes from

On August 19, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower spoke to the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Evanston, Illinois. He quoted a former college president he did not name: "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." Eisenhower credited the line to someone else, and the popular version with "seldom" in it came later (source).

The four box grid is younger than the quote. Stephen Covey made it popular as the time management matrix in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989. Covey numbered the boxes I to IV and argued that most people should spend more time in quadrant II, important but not urgent (source).

How the Eisenhower matrix works

List everything on your plate. Work, home, admin, the big goal.
Urgent and important: do it now. Real deadlines and real problems, such as a filing due tomorrow.
Important, not urgent: schedule it. Study, health, planning, the goal you care about most. Give it a day and a time.
Urgent, not important: delegate or shrink it. Requests and interruptions that someone else can handle, or that need five minutes, not fifty.
Neither: delete it. Busywork and distractions. Cross them off.

Eisenhower matrix template

Here is the grid. Print this page or copy the four boxes onto paper. Write one goal as done on the top line before you sort anything.

My goal, written as done:

Urgent and important

Do it now

Important, not urgent

Schedule it: day, time, place

Urgent, not important

Delegate or shrink it

Not urgent, not important

Delete it

Top row: important. Left column: urgent. The highlighted box is the one to fill from your goal.

For more sheets, the free printable reverse journaling templates include a goal as done page and a weekly backward plan. Both help fill the schedule box.

What the research says, carefully

Urgency pulls attention, even when it is fake. Meng Zhu, Yang Yang and Christopher Hsee (2018) ran five experiments in which people chose between tasks. People often picked a task that only seemed urgent, for example because it looked about to expire, over an important task with a bigger payoff. The authors call it the mere urgency effect (source). That is the pull the matrix asks you to resist.
When and where plans help. Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran (2006) pooled 94 tests of if-then plans, which name when and where you will act. These plans had a medium to large effect on reaching goals (source). "Schedule it" works better as "Tuesday, 7 am, at my desk." See implementation intentions.
What no one has tested. We found no controlled study of the Eisenhower matrix itself, and none that compares it with reverse journaling. The case for combining them is a reasoned one: one sorts the list, the other fills the box that matters.

Treat these findings as a guide, not a promise. This is a planning habit, not medical or financial advice.

The catch: the important box never rings

Everything in the urgent boxes has an alarm on it: a deadline, a message, a person waiting. The important box has none. "Get in shape", "write the book" and "change careers" sit there week after week, scheduled in theory and started never. The matrix also only sorts what you have already written down. If the big goal never made the list, no box will hold it.

How to fill the important box backward

Write the goal as done. Past tense, with a date: "On 1 June I ran my first half marathon."
Name the obstacle. What is most likely to stop you? For many people it is the week where work gets loud.
Step back to this week. From the finish, work back through milestones until you reach what must be done by Friday.
Put that step in the important box, with a time. Small enough for about 45 minutes. Write when and where you will start it.
Start it before the urgent box. One 45 minute sprint first, then the deadlines. Before bed, log one line on your done list.

Example: one week, two matrices

Priya wants to move from accounting into data analysis by next year.

Matrix sorted from the inbox: Do: month end report, a client question. Schedule: "learn SQL". Delegate: meeting notes, the office lunch order. Delete: tidying old folders. By Friday the do box is empty and "learn SQL" has not been touched.
Goal written as done: "On 30 June I started my first job as a data analyst."
Backward plan for this week: finish SQL lessons 1 to 3, save one public dataset, write two lines on what question it could answer.
Important box, with times: "Tuesday and Thursday, 7 am, kitchen table: SQL lessons, 45 minutes."
Tonight's log: "SQL lesson 1 done. Joins next."

The four boxes did not change. What changed is that the important box came from a plan and had a start time.

When the matrix alone is enough

Your list is long and mostly noise, and you need to clear it fast.
You already know your big goal and it already has time on the calendar.

When to add reverse journaling

The important box holds the same three items every week.
Your goal is big enough that "schedule it" does not say what to do first.
You clear the urgent boxes every day and the goal still has not moved.

Eisenhower matrix app

You do not need a special app. Any notes app can hold the four boxes as four short lists, and so can paper or the grid above. A dedicated matrix app is worth trying only if dragging tasks between boxes helps you sort.

Start From Done is not an Eisenhower matrix app, and it does not sort your list. It fills the important box. You write the goal as done, plan back to this week and get one 45 minute step with a time. Keep your four boxes wherever you like and put that step in the schedule box.

Eisenhower matrix for ADHD

The matrix asks you to pick the important task over the loud one, all day long. If you have ADHD, or simply find that hard, these changes keep it practical.

Make the important box tiny and timed. One step, not a project. "Tuesday, 7 am: SQL lesson 1" is easier to start than "learn SQL".
The urgent box pulls hardest. Research on the mere urgency effect found that people often choose tasks that only seem urgent. Decide before the day starts that the important step goes first.
Keep the grid visible. A list inside a closed app is easy to forget. Tape the paper grid near your desk or keep the note on your home screen.
Start one 45 minute sprint first. Do the important step, then sort the rest. Sorting can turn into its own way of putting the step off.

Educational, not medical advice.

Where this fits in Reverse Journaling

Reverse Journaling starts with the goal written as done, names the obstacle, plans back to today and ends each day with a done log. The next step from that plan is what belongs in the important box. If you like a short ranked list instead of a grid, the Ivy Lee method and the 1-3-5 rule do the same job, and the daily routine shows where the evening plan sits in the day.

Try it now

Draw the four boxes. Before you sort anything, write one goal as done, with a date. Ask what has to be done by Friday to move it forward. Put the next step in the important box with a time and a place. Then sort the rest of the list.

Questions

What is the Eisenhower matrix?

A two by two grid that sorts tasks by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important? Urgent and important: do it now. Important, not urgent: schedule it. Urgent, not important: delegate or shrink it. Neither: drop it.

Did Eisenhower invent the matrix?

No. In a 1954 speech Dwight Eisenhower quoted a former college president: "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." The four box grid came later and was made popular by Stephen Covey's 1989 book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

What goes in each quadrant?

Do: crises and real deadlines. Schedule: work that matters but has no alarm on it, such as study, health, planning and the big goal. Delegate: interruptions and requests someone else can handle. Delete: busywork and distractions.

Is there a printable Eisenhower matrix template?

Yes. This page has a four box grid you can print or copy onto paper: urgent and important (do it now), important but not urgent (schedule it), urgent but not important (delegate or shrink it), and neither (delete it). Write one goal as done on the top line before you sort.

Is there an Eisenhower matrix app?

You do not need one. Any notes app, a sheet of paper or the printable grid on this page can hold the four boxes. Start From Done is not a matrix app: it fills the important box with a backward plan from your goal and one 45 minute step with a time.

Why does the important box get ignored?

Because nothing in it is urgent. Research on the mere urgency effect found that people often pick tasks that only seem urgent over important tasks with bigger payoffs. Without a date and a start time, important work keeps losing to the loudest task.

Can I use the Eisenhower matrix with reverse journaling?

Yes. The matrix sorts what is already on your list. Reverse journaling fills the important box: write the goal as done, plan back to this week, and give the next step a time. That step becomes tomorrow's first 45 minute sprint.

What is Start From Done?

Manifest, with a plan. Start From Done helps you visualize and manifest your goals, dreams and the life you always wanted. You see your dream already done, name what could stop you, then get the steps back to today: backward milestones, an if-then plan, a first 45 minute step and a Done list for the evidence. It is free to start, needs no account, and your journal stays on your device unless you choose to share it.

Does manifesting actually work?

Picturing the dream on its own can backfire: studies by psychologist Gabriele Oettingen found that positive fantasies alone can lower the energy people put in. What research supports is pairing the picture with the obstacle in the way and a specific if-then plan, called mental contrasting with implementation intentions. Start From Done builds those steps in: see it done, name what could stop you, then take one 45 minute step today. It is built on research-backed goal steps, and no app can promise an outcome.