It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you feel like everything needs to get done and everything is a priority.  When the feelings of overwhelm consume you, it’s hard to motivate yourself to do anything, and the shutdown begins…

How do we solve this?  Prioritize your priorities with the few simple questions and the Eisenhower Matrix below:

It is Important?

Is it Urgent?

These are your TWO major questions.  Not everything is important, not everything is urgent. Break out your tasks to complete based on these categories into the matrix.

So many of our days and tasks can be simplified into this matrix. Crank it out, decide what’s most important, when is best to do it, and always try to eat the frog first. If one of these items gives you a sense of impending dread – it’s probably a good idea to get it over with and get it off your mind so you can focus clearly on the rest.

In the event your decisions just don’t fit here (and not because it’s more than 4 items, stack those items!) you can create a more complex Priority Matrix and maybe expand your week or month out with more scheduling opportunities.

In this expanded matrix I’m expanding into 5 categories and 4 schedule priorities.

It’s STILL simple. So simple, I sketched it. You can create these priority matrices in a number of softwares, but don’t stress yourself on adding another item to your list by adding the task of creating a matrix, just sketch it, write it out quick.

If you don’t know the task priority? It’s probably lower on the list.

And if you want a format to work with, click and get my Critical Tracker with Priorities tab added in.  This chart helps you prioritize, then use the other pages to schedule your tasks for the week.  Critical Tracker