ANSWER

Business Analysts are often working within organizations that are all about dealing with the latest crisis.  Instead of focusing on what’s important to the business from a strategic perspective, everyone is busy putting out "fires".

The Eisenhower Matrix is a prioritization tool that helps the business analyst refocus on what should be handled when, and who should focus on them.  This method gets it's name because it is said it was used by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower who was adept at time management.  The quote, "What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important" is attributed to him.

The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple 2x2 matrix.  The 2 rows are labeled "Not Important" and "Important", while the columns are labeled "Urgent" and "Not Urgent".  Items will fall into 1 of 4 quadrants.

Quadrants:

• Urgent and Important - Deal with these immediately and give them your utmost attention.
• Not Urgent but Important - Determine when these will be done.  These are items that move you towards your strategic objectives.
• Urgent but Not Important - These tend to be trivial time wasters and distractions such as phone calls, emails, etc. There importance is low but they need to be dealt with at that moment. Delegate these to others.
• Not Urgent and Not Important - These items may never get done and it's not that big of a deal.  They are low on the priority list.

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Chris Adams
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