Tasking

As a general and President, Eisenhower had a big impact on the US. One of the more relevant to development is the Eisenhower Matrix. It breaks tasks down into 4 types and helps you prioritize which ones you should work on when. It also tells you which ones to ignore.

But what if 4 categories is too many for you? Shreyas breaks it down into 3 categories, giving you one less thing to remember.

The three categories are:

• Leverage: Tasks that have an inordinate amount of impact on the future. Do a great job on these. They’re the important ones and the time won’t be wasted.
• Neutral: Tasks that are important, but the world goes on. Do what you can, but don’t obsess over them.
• Overhead: Tasks that are overhead. Someone needs them done, so you need to do them. However, actively try to do as little as possible to meet the requirement.

If you do that you spend the time needed on the important tasks and get the overhead out of the way with minimal effort. You get to focus and your customer partners are happy.

Of course, the trick is to make sure you get the categorization right. Invert that and no one will be happy. Personally I prefer Eisenhower’s matrix, but I’ve seen many people be successful with this method.