Eisenhower Matrix Template and Maker
An Eisenhower matrix sorts a to-do list by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important. Add your tasks below, place each one in a box, and leave with a short list of what to do, what to schedule, what to hand off and what to drop. It is for anyone whose list has grown longer than their week. No signup, and it works on a phone.
Unsorted (0)
Add your first task above. Then drag it into a box, or tap it and choose where it goes.
Do (0)
Urgent and important
Do these first, today. A real deadline and a real consequence.
- Nothing here yet.
Schedule (0)
Important, not urgent
Put a date and a time block on each one before it becomes urgent.
- Nothing here yet.
Delegate (0)
Urgent, not important
Hand off, batch, automate or answer in two minutes. Someone else's clock, not your goal.
- Nothing here yet.
Delete (0)
Not urgent, not important
Drop them. If you feel guilty, write down why before you decide.
- Nothing here yet.
Your tasks are saved in this browser on this device only. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account. Clearing site data erases them, so download a copy if you need one.
Eisenhower matrix
Do
Urgent and important
Schedule
Important, not urgent
Delegate
Urgent, not important
Delete
Not urgent, not important
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How to use this Eisenhower matrix template
- Add your tasks. Type one task per line item and press Enter. New tasks wait in the Unsorted list until you place them.
- Place each task. Drag a task into a quadrant on a desktop. On a phone, tap the task, then tap Do, Schedule, Delegate or Delete.
- Ask two questions per task. Does it have a real deadline or consequence soon (urgent)? Does it move you toward something you care about (important)? The answers pick the quadrant.
- Act on the quadrants. Start with Do. Put dates on everything in Schedule. Hand off, batch or automate Delegate. Delete the rest.
- Export or print. Download the matrix as a PNG image, download the list as a CSV file, or print the page. Your list stays in this browser until you clear it.
How the method works
Where it comes from. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th US president, is credited with the idea. In a 1954 address in Evanston, Illinois, he quoted a university president who said he had two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important, and that the urgent are not important and the important are never urgent. Eisenhower did not publish a grid. The four-box version was popularised by Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), which is why you also see it called the urgent-important matrix or time management matrix.
The two tests. A task is urgent when waiting has a cost soon: a deadline, or a person who needs something from you. A task is important when it serves a goal or responsibility you would still stand behind next month. Urgency is set by a clock, importance by your own priorities, so two people can place the same task differently.
| Box | Test | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Do | Urgent and important | Do these first, today. A real deadline and a real consequence. |
| Schedule | Important, not urgent | Put a date and a time block on each one before it becomes urgent. |
| Delegate | Urgent, not important | Hand off, batch, automate or answer in two minutes. Someone else's clock, not your goal. |
| Delete | Not urgent, not important | Drop them. If you feel guilty, write down why before you decide. |
What it does not do. The matrix does not order tasks inside a box, estimate effort, or know your calendar. If the Do box is always full, the cause is usually upstream: important work left in Schedule until it turned urgent. This tool only sorts what you type. It runs entirely in your browser and uses no outside data.
Eisenhower matrix questions
What is an Eisenhower matrix?
It is a two-by-two grid that sorts tasks by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important. The four boxes map to four actions: do now, schedule, delegate, and delete. It is a sorting aid, not a scheduler, so it does not rank tasks inside a box.
Did Eisenhower actually draw this matrix?
There is no known grid drawn by Eisenhower. The idea is credited to him because, in a 1954 address in Evanston, Illinois, he quoted a university president who said he had two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important, and that the urgent are not important and the important are never urgent. Stephen Covey turned that distinction into the four-box time management matrix in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in 1989.
How do I decide what is urgent and what is important?
Urgent means waiting has a cost soon, usually a deadline or someone waiting on you. Important means it serves a goal or responsibility you would still defend next month. A useful test: if you did nothing for a week, would something you care about get worse? If yes, it is important. If the same is true by tomorrow, it is also urgent.
What if I have nobody to delegate to?
The Delegate box really means someone else's clock, not your priority. Without a person to hand it to, you can batch these tasks into one fixed slot, answer them in two minutes, set up an automatic rule, or decline. Repeating tasks that land here every week are the strongest candidates for automation.
Where is my task list stored?
Only in your browser's local storage on this device. Nothing is sent to a server and there is no account. It will not appear on your other devices, and clearing site data or using Clear all removes it, so download the CSV or PNG if you want a copy.
How many tasks should go in the Do box?
There is no official number. If more tasks land in Do than you can finish today, the box is telling you something: either some are not truly urgent, or earlier Schedule items were left until they became urgent. Move the ones that can wait to Schedule and give them a date.
Related
- Automation scorecard: see which repeating tasks you could stop doing by hand
- What to automate first: a scoring framework for small teams
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Written by the TaskDrain team. Last reviewed 2026-10-10.