How to be an Original

Sketchcast #2: Using the Eisenhower matrix

Saturday is sketchcast day. Short 5 minute videos in which I explain a concept related to the topics on my blog.

This sketchcast is about the Eisenhower matrix, also known as the time management or time leadership matrix. It’s a short 5 minute 30 second video explaining the concept and ways to use it to your advantage.

Eisenhower is not often credited for this concept, yet he is the originator of the quadrants as the people from Google Answers once checked for a curious person (it wasn’t me).

In the sketchcast I mention the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (aff) by Stephen Covey. I also wrote a series about Covey’s habits.

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Posted on August 25, 2007 - Filed Under Productivity / GTD, Seven habits, Sketchcasts
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Comments (12)

  1. gtdfrk

    Sat 2007.08.25

    Lodewijk, even though the material is not new to me, I simply love the concept of a SketchCast! Very well executed also.

  2. Lodewijkvdb

    Sat 2007.08.25

    Thanks gtdfrk! I like making them as well and it’s getting easier. But since English is not my mother tongue, I’m sometimes lost for words in the middle of a sentence and I have to start over. Rich Ziade made a rule of “no editing”, and I’m trying to uphold that, but it can be a little frustrating at times.

  3. Edward Dowd

    Sat 2007.09.01

    The sound is higher this time so I can listen. YEAH!
    I would suggest speeding up the video were your just drawing and not speaking, it saves the view more time.

  4. Should You Consider Videos and other Forms of Media? - The Blog Beat

    Sat 2007.09.01

    […] your site. Colbert used video and Youtube as the way to become viral and become popular. Video, (or sketchcasting) is another way to promote your site and provide better content to your […]

  5. Mastering Productivity: How to Be More Effective With Your Time | zen habits

    Tue 2007.09.25

    […] The Eisenhower Matrix takes a step towards identifying the important from the non-important stuff. You define what is important and what is not, based on what is important to you. Knowing what your personal values are, knowing your mission statement or mantra, having goals and acting upon them are all aspects of identifying and translating what matters to you most into daily activities. […]

  6. links for 2007-09-25 « Hip Hop News

    Tue 2007.09.25

    […] Sketchcast #2: Using the Eisenhower matrix | How to be an Original (tags: towrite) Posted in Uncategorized | […]

  7. links for 2007-09-25 « GroundupHipHop

    Tue 2007.09.25

    […] Sketchcast #2: Using the Eisenhower matrix | How to be an Original (tags: towrite) Posted in Uncategorized | […]

  8. Bradley Woods

    Mon 2007.10.08

    These is the same as Stephen Covey’s. Did he just take this from Eisenhower?

  9. Lodewijkvdb

    Mon 2007.10.08

    I think Covey based it on the ideas of Eisenhower, that’s pretty much what Google Answers is revealing. I guess Covey developed it further into a matrix with the quadrants and expanded the theory with his own ideas and findings. But I like to keep the reference to the original source.

  10. Xavier C.

    Thu 2008.01.31

    “Say No to unimportant things” is quite easy to say, but how much does this happen in real life?

    Of course, all of us would love to say No to every ‘unimportant-looking’ task, but the major problem is that they are so often imposed to us that we have to face them.
    Whatsmore, an unimportant and urgent task is indeed important, as if it is not executed right away, the world will explode (or something).

  11. Brick Andrews

    Fri 2008.02.15

    Lodewijk, the concept of the sketchcast is very neat and original! In thinking about time management, I came up with my own four quadrant classification system based on these the following grading system for activities:

    1. Essential and Unforgettable
    2. Essential but Forgettable
    3. Unessential but Unforgettable
    4. Unessential and Forgettable

    After I initially organized my thoughts like that, I realized it looked a lot like the Covey Time Management Matrix! It is, however, subtlety different in that urgency in my scheme is more a matter of, as you point out, looking ahead and/or calendaring events - not a coordinate used to grade tasks. I thought you might be interested.

    BTW, I like how in a more recent post, you label the Covey quadrants as Quadrant of Stress, Quadrant of Value, etc…

  12. Diary of a Four-Hour-a-Weeker » Time Management: Sometimes Things Change (A Guest Post from Brick)

    Thu 2008.03.06

    […] As I have noted before in a post on rethinking time management, this looks a lot like the Time Management Matrix in Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. An entertaining description of Covey’s time management matrix can be found in this sketchcast on Using The Eisenhower Matrix. […]

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