May 10
14
Priority Matrix (Time Management)
Who would sell me time?
A dear friend of mine (Sultan Al-Otaibi), God bless him, had written that phrase and hanged up it in his office. That was when he passed by a period of time where he got so swamped in his work that he could not even rub his nose. That phrase made me think a lot and realize how time is a very important resource that needs to be managed very well.
Time management experts have developed a model called a time management matrix or Priority Matrix. This model helps us prioritize our activities and use our time more effectively. Through the model we can evaluate our activities in terms of importance and urgency.
What is the Priority Matrix?
Priority Matrix
The figure, as you know, could be more expressive more than words. In the illustrated figure, there is a square divided into 4 quarters, numbered from 1 to 4, where 1 is the most important and 4 is the least important.
This matrix is used as a tool for time management, i.e. to manage work priorities. Categorizing our activities in these quadrants reminds us what is important and helps us avoid unimportant endeavors. It also helps us prioritize important activities.
Your daily time account is only 24 hours! At the beginning of every day of your life, your time account is charged with 24 hours and by the end of the day this account is discharged. Thus, if you do not perfectly use the hours in your account for your advantage, you will not, unfortunately, be able to save them for another day.
Since life engagements are numerous and life stresses are frequent, and since everyone considers his demands from you the most important ones, therefore you have to perfect the art of time management. Else, your life would be categorized among the crises management category. Everything around you seems important and urgent, but is that the real truth?
You should first train yourself to divide these tasks. You better write them down on a piece of paper or record them on your computer in order to perfect this time management skill. The tasks priority management tool is divided into four categories as follows:
Important and urgent:
• Example: Your boss asked you to prepare a work report and deliver it by the end of the day.
• Example: A medical case that might lead to series problems if neglected, God forbid.
Important and not urgent:
• Example: Finishing your education or your post graduate studies or taking training courses
• Example: Planning for a tour in the summer vacation
Not important and urgent:
• Example: Filling up your car with fuel
• Example: Having a hair cut or shaving
Not important and not urgent:
• Example: Washing the car
• Example: Spending the evening with your friends everyday
• Example: Reading the newspaper daily
Note: the previous examples are not basic as the priorities might differ from one person to another according to the nature of his work. For example, the car fuel could be of utmost importance for someone whose job depends on transporting or someone travelling.
The time management art relies basically on the art of management, as the non-important and non-urgent tasks do not mean that you do not take care of them or delete them from your schedule. Nevertheless, everything has its own place and surely a suitable time, and that is where the art of management comes to the rescue.
Hence, you ought to divide your own priorities, as done in the previous examples, into 4 categories. Then, all you need to do after that is to focus on the second category (important but not urgent). That means that you have to take some time from the activities of the third and fourth category to devote it to the activities of the second one. They may even be more important than the first category, but they just may not be urgent.
First category should always be in few and rare cases in our daily life, as you can never do everything at the same time. Spending most of our time on the activities of the first category causes stress and burnout. It leads to crisis management and “putting out fires.” Also, focusing on the activities of the second category (important and not urgent) can reduce the number of activities in the first one in the long run.
Hence, by this simple matrix, you can benefit the most from your time, obtain your goals, and solve the problems of the key time destroyers.
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Possibly Related Posts:
- Wheel of Life
- Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa)
- To-Do-List
- Pareto Principle/Rule of 20/80
- Maslow’s Hierarchy
