Time to Make Better Choices about Time
Time to Make Better Choices about Time
Finally a modern upgrade to the Eisenhower Decision Matrix
We talk a lot about time management at The Leadership Club™ and for good reason: Time is a leader’s most valuable asset. How we spend our time is more than just a matter of how “busy” we feel: It’s one of the primary drivers of reaching our goals. So let’s add another tool to your ability to wisely use time, with an upgrade to an old-school tool whose replacement time has come.
Let’s replace the Eisenhower Decision Matrix with something better.
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A Better Way To Decide
Let’s start with a confession: I like the Eisenhower Decision Matrix (EDM) tool. I wrote about it earlier in the year and have taught leaders to use it for decades. It works. And it’s easy to remember. So I’m not really against it.
I just think there’s a better way.
At some point in your journey as a leader, you pretty much know what the EDM is telling you to do: Prioritize, Execute, Delegate, and Delete. Most leaders do that fairly easily — although it’s not uncommon to hear leaders struggle with delegation, mostly because they’re perfectionists who don’t like to give up control. Well, we’re not doing therapy here: You know the difference between giving up control and giving others an opportunity to succeed. So at some point, you just need to decide whether you’re going to delegate.
And at that point, we’re really no longer talking about managing time, are we?
What Should We Manage Instead?
That’s where my “upgrade” to the Decision Matrix comes into play. In my experience, leaders usually reach a limit to how far the old tool will take them. It’s not because they’re not trying to use it better: it’s simply that it doesn’t answer enough of the question of what we should be doing with our time to go beyond rudimentary redirection of the A-type personalities that often dominate the leadership suite.
So I’ve invented an upgraded tool that answers the question not what to do with time, but what to do with your time leading. So I’ve applied some “ai” to the problem — in the form of my mantra to be “Always Inspiring” and come up with a new matrix for deciding where to “always invest” my time. Here’s the visual:
The AlwaysInspiring Always Invest Decision Matrix
For starters, there are still four quadrants, to keep it easy to remember. Like the old model, a leader uses the tool by “mapping” any choice of what to do with their time on the matrix. Choices are things like accepting a task, having a meeting, creating a report, coaching a colleague, advancing the company culture, or spending time with clients. Anything that could end up on a leader’s schedule gets processed through the AI Matrix first.