Do you feel like you’re inefficient and you’re just not able to get enough hours out of each day?

The Achiever Matrix is a useful tool that allows you to identify what tasks take up your time and whether you’ve got the balance right. By using the Achiever Matrix, we’re able to split our time up into four different quadrants:

•Urgent

•Not urgent

•Important

•Not important

Then you can analyse and understand how much time you are spending within each quadrant.

Quadrant One – Urgency

Quadrant one is important. It’s a fire that we need to put out and we need to put it out now. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, or where you are, you have got to sort that task out.

Quadrant Two – Important but not Urgent

Quadrant two is when something is important, but it’s not urgent. This is the quadrant of quality. Primarily these tasks tend to revolve around administration or professional development. Because they’re not urgent it’s really hard to prioritize them. These tasks are important, we know they are, but they often get overridden by anything that’s urgent.

Quadrant Three – Urgent But Not Important

Think about that damn cell phone ringing, it just has that feeling of urgency, doesn’t it. In many cases, it’s potentially not important, it takes our attention away from what we were working on. Quadrant three is about identifying whether something is really important or not.

Quadrant Four – Not Urgent Not Important

Quadrant four is the worst of all. Quadrant four is when something isn’t urgent and it isn’t important. And the first thing you’ve got to ask yourself is if something’s falling in quadrant four, why the hell are we doing it in any way?

Practical Application

It’s great to understand what each one is, but the practical implications are when you start actively and critically reviewing the time that you are spending in each quadrant throughout the day.

If you are finding that you feel like you are ineffective, or you are inefficient, or you’re just not able to get enough hours out of each day it is time to get ruthless with your time.

If you are aware that you need to change something, and you’ve accepted that you need to make that change please make sure you get in touch with us at SMYD Accounting / Advisory.