Urgent Isn't Important
The Simple System That Saves Your Future from the Tyranny of Now
⚡️ Quick Takeaways
Most people confuse urgency with importance and it keeps them stuck in busyness instead of effectiveness.
The Eisenhower Matrix helps you filter life and business into four clear quadrants: Urgent & Important, Important but Not Urgent, Urgent but Not Important, and Neither.
Action Step: Pick one task right now that is Important but Not Urgent (Quadrant 2) and schedule it on your calendar.
Read the full essay for the story + principles. Scroll to the bottom for this week’s Superhuman Signals.
Drowning in Busyness
A few years back, I found myself at my desk at 11:30 p.m. answering emails that didn’t matter. My kids were asleep. My wife had gone to bed. And I was working on something that would be forgotten by morning.
Then it hit me—I was sacrificing the essential for the immediate. Life had become a string of “urgent” fires.
And yet, the things that actually built my future—faith, health, vision, relationships, strategy—were always postponed for later.
The Struggle: The Trap of Urgency
This is the common condition of our age. We live as if the inbox is the battlefield. Every ping feels like life or death.
But urgency doesn’t equal importance.
Without a system, we drift into:
Burnout from solving everyone else’s problems.
Regret from neglecting what truly matters.
Shallow work instead of deep contribution.
The System: The Eisenhower Matrix
President Dwight Eisenhower once said, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”
His simple model is a 2×2 matrix:
Quadrant 1: Urgent + Important → Do it now.
Quadrant 2: Not Urgent + Important → Schedule it. (This is where growth happens.)
Quadrant 3: Urgent + Not Important → Delegate it.
Quadrant 4: Not Urgent + Not Important → Delete it.
The genius of the model is not in its complexity but in its clarity. It gives you permission to ignore—something most high performers like us secretly struggle with.
Why It Matters
Psychology: Without boundaries, we become slaves to other people’s crises. The matrix gives order to chaos.
Philosophy: “You have power over your mind—not outside events.” The matrix helps us exercise that power by choosing what truly deserves our energy.
Faith: Stewardship means prioritizing eternal over temporary. Quadrant 2 is often the domain of faith, family, and long-term service.
Superhuman OS™:
Being → Meditation, prayer, journaling (Quadrant 2 investments).
Body → Exercise before illness makes it urgent.
Bridge → Learning and skill development.
Bonds → Date nights, family dinners, deep friendships, time with your kids individually.
Business → Strategy, vision, building systems.
Your Turn…
Daily Review: End your day by putting tomorrow’s tasks into the four quadrants. Then, plan your next day accordingly.
Weekly Focus: Block at least 5 hours for Quadrant 2 — these are your “builder hours.” It only takes 1 hour per day on weekdays.
If you commit to this every day of each year, you can invest over 2 months worth of work weeks into it (365 days ÷ 40 hours = 9.125 weeks)
Inbox Triage: As emails or DMs come in, run them through the matrix before responding.
If you want to go one step further, set up separate folders in your inbox, and set up an email sorting automation via Make.com or n8n.io, and it will do it for you. Message me if you want the automation for this.
Delegation Test: If something lands in Quadrant 3, don’t do it twice. Create a system or hand it off.
Quarterly Reset: Ask: “Am I building a future or maintaining a treadmill?”
I do a mini version of this at the end of each week, another assessment at the end of each month, a full day at the end of each quarter, and a big review at the end of each year right before Christmas.
Freedom is not found in doing more; it’s found in doing what matters most.
📡 Superhuman Signals
Being: Daily Stoic Journal — A practical way to capture Quadrant 2 reflections each morning.
Body: Huberman Lab on Sleep — Because fixing sleep before it becomes urgent prevents burnout.
Bridge: Farnam Street Mental Models — Quadrant 2 learning: sharpening the axe before chopping wood.
Bonds: The Gottman Institute — Tools for nurturing relationships before conflict becomes urgent.
Business: Cal Newport on Deep Work — Build Quadrant 2 focus into your workflow.
💡 Prompt of the Week
Drop this into ChatGPT, Claude, or your favorite LLM
Role: Productivity Coach
Task: Prioritize tasks using the Eisenhower Matrix.
Prompt:
"Here is my task list: [paste list]. Classify each task into the Eisenhower Matrix quadrants and suggest what I should do immediately, schedule, delegate, or delete. Then create a simple daily plan for me."
Remember, clarity isn’t found in more tasks; it’s found in ruthless priority.
I hope this was helpful for you. Now, get ruthless about your priorities and make the rest of your life, the best of your life.
All Systems Go,
Matt