On Twitter, Ana Canhoto asked about the stickies on the wall near my desk:
Indeed it is. It’s a system knows as the Eisenhower Priority Matrix. I recorded a short video explaining it:
Try it out for yourself. It just takes some sticky notes and masking tape to get set up. No expensive system, no gear to buy, just a wall and some tape!
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Oh, wow – Thanks for following up on my query, and producing such a detailed response. I really appreciate it.
I really like the tangibility of your system (bits of paper moving between cells of the matrix…), and I suppose that you could take it a step further and use stick notes of different colours or shapes for different types of tasks or for different client projects.
Thanks, again. I am off to the stationery store to get some masking tape 😉
You’re very welcome!
What’s the area off to the right? (that horizontal piece of green masking tape)? Thanks!
That’s the done pile!
I don’t watch videos, especially 3 minutes long. is there a text explanation in a paragraph or two that I can skim in about 30 seconds and get the gist of it?
I don’t understand the fetish with replacing what can be conveyed and read (and searched!) in text — with videos. Cooking demonstrations maybe, but not simple explanations.
What’s the specifi Google App referred to? I searched but could not find one that took screen shots
It’s called the Post-It Note app.
Ah – looks like this is from 3M and is iOS only. There’s an Evernote app for Android, but it does not appear to separate post-its.
My workplace doesn’t allow me to put things on my wall, so I made on on my desk!
Nice!
<3
I’m a digital/online guy. Can you recommend some online/digital/app equivalents for your method? I have some ideas, but I’d like to hear yours. Thanks.
I’ve tried a whole bunch of them, and the closest ones I’ve found have been Asana and Brightpod, and they’re not real close. For me, there’s no real equivalent to the freedom of just walking up to a wall and moving things around, not yet.
Have you looked into Kanban or Agile? There are some good apps for Kanban (KanbanFlow, KanganTool). And isn’t Kanban the same as your method except in columns instead of squares? I would think you could move the bottom 2 squares over to the right, and then have 4 columns (5 with your Done column, which see fits naturally in columns). Another reason I like a Kanban app, is that it has swim lanes – keeping each client or project in it’s own lane – which prevents confusion when performing on multiple projects.
By the way, I really like your Eisenhower matrix hack. I”ve never heard of anybody using it for delegating or deferring, so thanks for that insight!
Thanks – I’ve done both Kanban and Agile. In fact, this used to be an Agile board. I found that it didn’t map as well for my personal workflow – not a ding on those systems, just not the way I think.