Do you know who Eisenhower was? He was the 34th president of the United States, who served two terms from 1953 to 1961. Apparently, one of the great traits that separated him from the others was his productivity. The way he managed his time and tasks is an example worth following. His greatest tool was the Eisenhower Box, a simple decision-making box that you can start using today. How do you use the box? It’s very simple. By using this decision matrix, you separate actions based on four possibilities. 1. Urgent 2. Not Urgent 3. Important 4. Not Important. The difference between urgent and important: Urgent tasks are those where you feel you should react, like emails, messages, calls, news. On the other hand, the important ones are those that contribute to a long-term mission. Here’s an example: Imagine that you have to save to pay your taxes this year, so your situation is «Save to pay taxes». When this is clear, you go to the box and you wonder, is it urgent? Well, I think that «paying taxes» is urgent. «Save to pay taxes» is not. This puts us in the not urgent top box, so now we proceed to the second question, is it important? Since each has its own assessments, but tax evasion is a very serious issue, I would say that it’s important. When we cross the two responses, we end up in the box «DECIDE (program when)». So, according to our friend Eisenhower, we have to plan and decide how we will save for taxes starting now. What do you think? Do you think you can apply this box in your life? The good thing about this box is that you can use it for very small situations like, «Do I go grocery shopping today?» And also with very complex situations like, «Should I get married this year?» If you want to know more about how to save time, resources and money, follow me on Facebook and Twitter. See you there!
