The Eisenhower matrix

Sort your tasks by urgent and important, then do, schedule, hand off or drop each one. In Ring List, that’s the Urgent & Important view.

The Eisenhower matrix asks two things of every task: is it urgent (it has to happen soon) and is it important (it matters to you)? The answers put it in one of four boxes, and each box has its own move: do it, schedule it, hand it off, or drop it.

The box that matters most is Plan it: important work that isn’t urgent yet. It’s what gets crowded out, until it turns into a crisis.

Open it in Ring List

Open a list, or All Lists for everything. Tap or click the view button, first in the tool bar, and choose Urgent & Important.

You don’t sort the tasks yourself. Ring List puts each one in its box:

• Important: it has a priority (!, !! or !!!), or the 🚩 Flagged or 🐸 Frog label.
• Urgent: it’s overdue or due by tomorrow, it’s in today’s plan or the next one, or it’s !!!.

To move a task, change its priority or due date, or drag it to another box: it changes as little as it takes to belong there, and Undo takes that back. More about the view.

Five minutes each morning

1. Do first: put these in Today’s Plan and start with them.
2. Plan it: give each one a day to do it with ☀️, or a due date with 📅, so it’s done before it’s urgent.
3. Hand off: ask someone to do it, then mark the task ⏳ Waiting on someone, so you remember to check. Ring List doesn’t send it to anyone. See Hand something off.
4. Later: close what you won’t do with Won’t do, or give it the 🏝️ Someday label. Nothing in Later is deleted.

Good to know

• A task due by tomorrow stays urgent. To move it to Plan it or Later, change its due date first. An inbox task in a plan stays urgent too.
• A task in today’s plan with no priority shows under Hand off. If it matters, give it a priority.