PRESIDENT EISENHOWER WAS a military general, a statesman who served as our 34th president and a great leader who understood the fundamental difference between the urgent and the important.’

He went on to define what is now known as the Eisenhower Matrix, which puts every problem or idea into one of four quadrants. I believe good leaders use this to organize their priorities so that they stay on course and lead their companies to success.

How often do you find yourself busy all day yet feel you accomplished nothing at the end of the week? The problem is not that you are not working hard enough, but that you are focusing on the wrong things. By leveraging the Eisenhower Matrix process, you gain a new perspective on your seemingly never-ending to-do list, allowing you to effectively prioritize which items to tackle first, push to later, delegate to others or simply remove from your list.

In the bestseller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” author Stephen Covey tells us that “most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” Of course, it’s hard not to feel this way when every issue seems vital all the time. How are you supposed to know what issue or problem to address first? I have found Eisenhower’s Important/Urgent Matrix to be one of the most useful tools when deciding how to focus my energies and time.

#1 Important/Urgent — DO IT NOW

This do-it-now quadrant includes things that have clear deadlines and consequences if not addressed immediately. These are the issues that need our utmost attention and are usually the ones that good leaders love to solve. The idea is to keep this quadrant as clear as possible, so you have the time and energy to solve these problems quickly.

A good example of this was when COVID-19 first emerged in March 2020. My company at the time was an asset-based brokerage with over 2 million square feet of food-grade warehouse space. As the leader of a business classified as “essential” by the federal government, I needed to put together a plan to continue providing service for our customers while ensuring our employees were safe at work.

In those first few months when we knew so little about the COVID-19 virus, it seemed almost everything fell into the doit-now quadrant. However, with a good team behind me, I was able to quickly identify which problems/items could wait (schedule it), which items my team could tackle (delegate it) and which items to ignore (delete it).

#2 Important/Not Urgent — SCHEDULE IT

The schedule-it quadrant includes things that do not have a set deadline but are part of your company goals. These issues or ideas are usually the ones we procrastinate on. If these do not get addressed when they should, they could quickly and unintentionally shift into the important/urgent quadrant.

An example of this quadrant is where your strategic planning ideas reside. These items are important to your overall business health and need consistent awareness. A good leader makes time to provide energy to these items, so they continue to make progress. This is the quadrant that allows you to focus not on problems but on opportunities and growth strategy.

#3 Not Important/Urgent — DELEGATE IT

The items in the delegate-it quadrant are things that need to be done but don’t require your attention. These items may be somewhat important to the overall company, but they do not fall into an important category for you. Not getting involved in every issue or problem can be challenging for the “I can do it better” boss. For them, these types of issues are easy to solve while providing their egos with a sense of gratification and their brains with a dopamine boost.

Or are you the boss that wants to be copied on every email from your management team? Don’t be that micromanager leader. Not only does this fill your email box needlessly, it takes time away from the important items you should be addressing. Trust the talent on your management team and tell them to only copy you on emails that require a response. If you don’t feel comfortable with that approach, it may be that you don’t have the right people on your management team (which is a new task to add to your schedule-it quadrant).

With heads seemingly always buried in phones or computers, we get distracted by needlessly responding to emails or blog posts. I would define these items as “busy work.”

For example, making sure your business’s credit score is high so you can attract a good carrier following is important (schedule-it quadrant); the actual process of approving an invoice for payment is something that falls into delegate-it quadrant and is not an important part of your job. Remember, items in this quadrant may be urgent/necessary but do not need a leader’s attention.

#4 Not Important/Not Urgent — DELETE IT

A good leader spends little time in this delete-it quadrant. The things that do not contribute to the progress on company goals, don’t increase the productivity of your operation, and certainly don’t increase the value of your business—do not need your attention. Period.

Examples of this are mindlessly searching social media, scrolling through posts, or watching TV for hours. Although decompression time is important, there are better ways that contribute to a healthy mind and body. If you need a break from work, take a short walk or solve a Wordle puzzle.

For people that have a hard time delegating or saying no, this can be a challenge. Just because an item is important to someone else, it may not be important to you. Good leaders know when it’s okay to say no.

“Where is my truck”?

At the root of a logistics company, leaders wish “Where is my truck?” was the only problem they had to solve in a day. In today’s fast-paced world, our customers expect us to be an extension of their traffic department, exchanging information in real-time from load acceptance to detailed reports showing expected KPIs. In reality, we live in the limited constraints of only 24 hours a day, so we must make better use of our time. Using the Eisenhower Matrix will help good leaders become better.

In a 1954 speech, Eisenhower quoted an unnamed university president who said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

Tackle the important items before they become urgent!

Alec A. Gizzi, CTB, MBA, is the founder and president of AAG Consulting LLC, which provides advisory services for mid-size logistics firms (15M – 500M) with expertise in business valuations, M&A, and leadership consulting. Gizzi also co-founded JBS Logistics in 1986 and served as chairman of TIA from 2011 to 2013.