The Urgent/Important Matrix:
A Tool for Managing Your Time
© American Management Association. All rights reserved. Visit cmcoutperform.com
Step 1: Listing your Activities
Think about all the things you spend time on. This might include the routine things you do on a daily or weekly basis, any
special projects you might be working on at the moment, the time you spend communicating with and supporting others, and
even the time you spend socializing or relaxing during your work day. List as many of these activities as you can think of below.
Consider your regular routine. Can you identify the
percentage of your time you spend in each quadrant?
The Urgent/Important Matrix
Once you have identified your daily activities, the next step is to prioritize them according to their importance and urgency.
Importance Relates to the long-term impact of the cumulative work on your business and/or your
goals and objectives (a measure of priority).
Urgency Refers to the expediency of a task or activity, regardless of its importance (a measure of time sensitivity).
All of our activities can be placed in one of four categories:
Must These are important and urgent tasks that require your
immediate attention. These could be deadline-driven
tasks, demanding problems, or crisis management
issues.
Should These are important but not urgent tasks; there is
no extreme time-sensitivity at this point but the
activity itself is high value, high payoff in the long
term. These include tasks such as preparation and
planning, professional development, self-care, routine
administration, and deadline-avoiding activities (i.e.
working on a proposal well in advance of the due date).
Could These are not important, but are time sensitive; if done,
they need to be done in short order. These include
requests and minor interruptions from colleagues, some
phone calls and meetings, responding to some e-mail
messages, etc. Although these tasks may feel non-
optional, they have relatively little long-term benefit for
you, or anyone else.
Avoid These are neither important nor urgent tasks. These
are really your time-wasters and include such things as
scrolling social media, “busy work,” and unimportant
e-mails. Note that socializing and breaks ARE generally
valuable uses of your time with high long-term benefit—
but it’s important to put your time towards activities
that genuinely help you recharge and connect with
others.
Not UrgentUrgent
Important
Not Important
Must Should
AvoidCould
% %
%%
Are you struggling to see the big picture and how your daily activities fit in? Do you feel scattered and unsure of how
to focus your energy? Are you wondering why, with the same 24 hours a day as everyone else, you just can’t seem to
get anything done? Use this tool to help you gain clarity and jump start your personal productivity. © American Management Association. All rights reserved. Visit cmcoutperform.com
The Urgent/Important Matrix:
A Tool for Managing Your Time
Step 2: Prioritizing Your Activities
Group the activities you listed above into the 4 quadrants. Look at your results and identify your highest-value tasks.
Consider what tasks you can delegate or avoid.
IMPORTANT
NOT IMPORTANT
Must Should
Could Avoid
URGENT NOT
URGENT The Urgent/Important Matrix:
A Tool for Managing Your Time
© American Management Association. All rights reserved. Visit cmcoutperform.com
Step 3: Organize Your Activities
Remember to start with the bigger picture when you decide where to put your time and energy. It is challenging to maintain
a long-term focus when it comes to organizing your activities. Our environment changes rapidly, and often our priorities
change with it. Try to frame your focus to monthly, weekly and daily. Make sure you plan to accomplish your most important
tasks—even if they are not, in this moment, urgent.
Monthly Weekly
What do I need to achieve/ What does my team need to
achieve?
What can I do?
What can I delegate?
Am I (is my team) on track this week? What needs to
happen by the end of the week?
What do I (or my team) need to prepare for next week?
Daily
What are my priorities today?
What might interrupt/interfere with my plans today? How can I best handle any interruptions to my plans?
