Find time and improve your ability to focus by taking on the ankle biters first

In the slugfest of time management tools, the Eisenhower Box is Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and my kid brother all rolled into one. It stands up, it does the work, it’s your best bet for winning the big money, achieving your goals and keeping your clients and colleagues happy. But I’m not a big fan of boxing, and I think we see Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important box all wrong.

High level on the Eisenhower matrix (skip if you know this; search if need more): It’s a four-square matrix where one axis (let’s say, the vertical) is labeled Important and Not Important. The horizontal axis is labeled Urgent and Not Urgent. The big idea (and it’s a good one) is to slot your tasks into one of the four squares, and this will show you where your priorities are. Use the matrix to plan your day, your week, your life. It works.

Once tasks are happily assigned, well trained pros tend to rush right up to the top left corner and start hammering away at the Urgent/Importants. Yeah. Don’t do that. Something interesting happens when you take a few minutes and a different approach.

Instead, bypass the top left, bottom left and top right corners. Take a look at the poor sop down in the lower right corner. We used to play a game called Four Square, back when kids had recess. The kid in that corner never got the ball. The box is labeled Not Urgent / Not Important. Let’s call it NUNI. Don’t ignore NUNI. Here’s why:

1. It could swell up. Urgent and important came from somewhere. Is there a NUNI in the box that will become something bigger if you ignore it? Schedule this task on your calendar, and commit to getting it done. Now cross off that task for today. Time spent, under 1 minute.

2. It could hurt someone. Solid relationships are built on the accumulation of small acts: a word, a gesture, a tiny favor. If it’s NUNI to you, but bigger to someone else, consider it. Either schedule time to do it or delegate the favor to someone else, and tell the requestor what your plan is. Don’t commit to even the smallest favor if you can’t take care of it right away. Now, cross off that task for today. Time spent, about a minute to either schedule or delegate the task; another minute to tell your friend what’s up.

3. It could bleed. Will ignoring your NUNI impact another task? Send it up to sit with the other task, as part of getting that done. Time spent, less than a minute.

4. It won’t ever matter. To you or to anyone. If this is the truth, if it’s just something you’re carrying around because you could or should do it someday, get rid of it. Cross it off your list. It’s gone. Don’t panic. If it comes back to haunt you, you can reassign it in the future. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Time spent, under a minute.

If you’re the mathematical type, you will know you’ve just invested about 5 minutes of your truly precious time on an exercise that emptied the NUNI box. Enjoy that open space for a split second, and then move on to the Urgent Importants that need and deserve your attention. You will be able to focus and tackle what really matters once you have the ankle biters out of the ring.

With my apologies to boxing fans everywhere, indulge me for just one more… Give NUNI the attention it deserves, and you’ll be the heavyweight champ of your to-do list in no time.