For the sake of illustration, let’s first look at what the original matrix looks like:
As you can see, the matrix is divided into four blocks:
● Q1: Urgent – Important
● Q2: Not urgent – Important
● Q3: Not important – Urgent
● Q4: Not important – Not urgent
The matrix was originally introduced by former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower, but it became popular after Steven Covey popularized it in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.
The basic message of the matrix is that one’s everyday life is divided into four quadrants and these translate more or less directly to your personal success in life, depending on which quadrant you focus.
If you want to become more efficient, you should stay out of the Quadrants 3 and 4 and minimize the amount of time used in Quadrant 1. That leaves us Quadrant 2: that’s where your focus should be.
