If you dig around the internet for more information on using the Eisenhower Matrix, you’ll find that one of the keys to success when using the Matrix is to hone in on getting your second quadrant items (doing what is important but not urgent). That’s easy for people to say, but when you can barely even tackle all of the urgent important things on your to-do list, how do you ever get to the second quadrant?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we can shift from a full load of dealing with things that are important and urgent, to a state where we have very few or even no urgent things on our plate and the bulk of our time is spent on important but not urgent tasks or projects.

As an Executive Director, it’s critical to the success of your role in leading your organization forward, that you’re able to work on those important but not urgent things. These things tend to have a broader impact across your entire organization and profoundly affect the future success of your organization. That’s why they’re so important.

Getting away from the urgent things knocking at your door is like getting out of a parallel parking spot when you’ve been blocked in front and back. You have to make a series of the right small moves to get out. Sometimes that’s a step back and sometimes it’s an inch forward, but either way, each time you make a good move (even when it’s backward) you get a little more room to maneuver.

Beyond what the Eisenhower Matrix has to offer, there are a lot more moves you can make to get time back in your day! One such move is to reduce context switching (we’ll talk about that in another post), delegate, or invest in automation (this one will feel like a step backwards at first, but will free up a lot of time in the end).