Nerdy Productivity: Covey’s Time Management Matrix Illustrated with XKCD Comics

Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First popularized the concept of a Time Management Matrix for prioritizing that I love (Side note: I say “popularized” because it appears Eisenhower was originally credited with using it).   The system advocates the use of four quadrants to determine the tasks you “need” to do and deciding what should be made a priority.

For those who are not familiar with it, here’s a picture and a brief overview.

Merrill Covey Matrix Four Quadrants Urgent Important

  • In Quadrant 1 (top left) we have important, urgent items – items that need to be dealt with immediately.
  • In Quadrant 2 (top right) we have important, but not urgent items – items that are important but do not require your immediate attention, and need to be planned for.  This quadrant is highlighted because Covey emphasizes this is the quadrant that we should focus on for long term achievement of goals
  • In Quadrant 3 (bottom left) we have urgent, but unimportant items -  items which should be minimized or eliminated. These are the time sucks, the “poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part” variety of tasks.
  • In Quadrant 4 (bottom right) we have unimportant and also not urgent items – items that don’t have to be done anytime soon, perhaps add little to no value and also should be minimized or eliminated.  These are often trivial time wasters

In addition to providing text examples, I’m going to have a little fun and illustrate items from each quadrant using one of my favorite comics, XKCD.  Note: XKCD sometimes contains strong language and is not always safe for work.  All the items in this post however are, though they do contain some swearing.

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Quadrant 4 – Not Urgent and Not Important

Clearly, not urgent, not important – and an obvious time waster.  Other time wasters include:

Quadrant 3 – Urgent and Not Important

A couple of my favorite examples, though I could have picked out more -

Other “Urgent” tasks that add little to no value

  • Phone calls that are off topic
  • Email that you have to reply to right away or it loses value (”Do you want some donuts? I have some in my office!”)

Quadrant 2 – Not Urgent And Important

Key to Quadrant 2 of course, tracking health – and the related variable, bacon intake…;-).  There are some other important, yet not urgent, things that fall into this quadrant as well:

  • Exercise
  • Reviewing your career path
  • Maintaining relationships with family/friends

Just make sure whatever you’re keeping an eye on, you do it accurately – and don’t go overboard…

Quadrant 1 – Urgent and Important

Perhaps not entirely rational, but at least her priorities are in order.  Other examples:

  • Family Emergencies
  • Real, hard deadlines for important projects

Your Thoughts?

What do you think of the matrix? Of the comics I selected?  Do you have any other thoughts or comments regarding important versus urgent?

Enjoy this post? You can share it with your friends using this short URL – http://tr.im/coveyxkcd

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Please review the Comment Policy.
  • I love the comics! thanks for this amusing post.
  • Thanks Bonnie! I'm glad you enjoyed them =) I had fun writing it up!
  • I enjoyed the comics and the post! Great work Sid!
  • Thanks! I'm glad you liked it =) Maybe I will change things up and use some
    media from time to time - thought I still enjoy writing ;)
  • Hey Sid,
    The comics were hilarious and a great way to get across your points without needing a lot of explanation. Always a good thing in my opinion! Because I am a visual person, I love seeing things like this on blogs so I hope you'll add your creativity to future articles as well.
  • Thanks Monica! XKCD is one of my favorite comics, I'm glad you enjoyed them
    =). I tend to be more text driven, but I thought I'd try mixing it up a
    little with this one =)
  • Those comics cracked me up, Sid. Very funny, but so true. :-)

    You did a fantastic job of talking about something very normal, in a much more interesting way.
  • Thanks Jamie! It's true - personal development and prioritizing are usually
    pretty dry subjects but I had a good time writing up this one =)
  • This is excellent. I think similar matrix can be use to map out time management matrix for blogging and stumbling. If I were to list out the those in time management matrix map, I would map mind as follow:

    1. Not urgent not important
    Deleting all spam comment since all my spam comment will be withheld until I review it. This was made possible by using automation via certain plugin. However this could be urgent but not important (I certainly don't want to see a lot of penis enlargement comment), if those automation was not installed in the first time.

    2.Urgent but not important
    Kill off comment spam that manage to slip through. Or in the case of stumbleupon reply back to stumble, review and comment request.The more I delay the more request will pile-up and my friend will lose trust. In social media, trust is one of the elements.

    3.Important but not urgent
    Reply back to my blog comment. I would like to reply to my comment at the best time available. I am certainly don't want to reply to any comment I received for the sake of replying. Sometime, I find myself in the position whether I need to write a blog post (which is important) but don't now or don't want to write anything (not urgent).

    4.Not urgent and not important
    Mindless surfing and mindless stumbling There times, I could not resist to do this.
  • Hi Hamdani,
    Thanks for your comment! You're right - it is hard to stop the endless
    surfing and stumbling if we don't pay attention to it right? =)
  • One of my old work mates used covey's matrix idea for work prioritation, though never knew the proper name of it until now
  • Hi Steve,
    Cool! I think it's become so widespread in different contexts, that perhaps
    the original source gets lost =). As I mentioned, it appears Eisenhower was
    "originally" credited with it as well - but as far as I know, Covey is the
    one who has really brought it into focus in recent years.
  • I learned some of these quadrant concepts in my software engineering classes... but I just had to say I loved your illustrations and cartoons the best! ;) Some of these are just so classic, and we can get wrapped up in the "urgent" that doesn't make a difference in the end.
  • Wow I never heard of them in my software engineering classes - but I can
    definitely see how they apply. Of course, my end users always think
    *everything* they give me is urgent and important ;)
  • Hey,

    I really enjoyed this! I am a fan of Covey and learned about those 4 quadrants 10 years before reading the book. The way he used it though, made them so popular.

    Thanks for an informative yet funny post :-)
  • Hey Dragos!
    Looks like you were way ahead of the game ;) I've often tried to prioritize
    my important versus un-important tasks - but it really clicked for me when I
    saw the concepts represnted in this particular matrix
  • Great distillation of the topic.
    I use Covey's quadrants massively and it gets me results, it certainly helps me weed out what's not important and focus on what really matters.
    I love the comics you shared here - visualizing is very powerful technique - good stuff!
  • Hi Alik,
    Thanks! I use the quadrants as well - but it's still hard to avoid getting
    caught up in the urgent unimportant from time to time ;)
  • I like this a lot especially the one used on quadrant 3. Although I admit not getting quadrant 1 images right away.
  • Hi Busby,

    It was hard finding an appropriate image for Quadrant 1 =) I felt it was
    representative, because it's talking about human relationships - and she's
    trying to affect the way things are ugently, at that moment in time ;)

    Quadrant 3 is my favorite as well. Though I also love the bacon graph ;)
  • Don Johnson
    Thanks for your comments and insight into the great personal life management tool. As with all concepts that have been developed, but don't exist in real life, the Four Quadrants are for our benefit and use, but not intended to control anyone who uses this idea. I believe that Steven Covey did not expect that anyone who subscribes to any of his ideas would want that idea or those ideas to control thier lives. Just use whatever helps us get along in life. For those of use who believe that we could use this concepts, then lets use them!!
  • Rejo
    Nice work, dude. I have read the books, so I already knew all that, but the comics spiced it up. :)
  • This post just helped me understand the matrix and how I should use it a lot better. I am printing this out! Thanks!!!!!
  • Hi Tony,

    Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it - I had fun putting it together =)
  • A great reminder of a simple but life changing idea - make time for important but not urgent tasks. I enjoyed scanning through your blog and have added your rss to my google reader.
  • Hey Conor,

    Thanks man, I appreciate the comment and I'm glad you've enjoyed what you've
    seen so far.

    I also love this: "I enjoyed scanning through your blog and have added your
    rss to my google reader." I tweeted it. Most honest comment ever on my blog
    =).