Lesson Eight · 9 of 13
Ruthless Elimination — the Eisenhower Matrix
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My notes
“Things that are not important often tend to be urgent — it's demanding your attention right now.
The five departments — everything on your plate
Step 1: Empty your head. List every task, idea and obligation from the last 30 days in the five departments below. Step 2: Drag each task into the Eisenhower matrix where it belongs — or tap the ⇄ arrow on any task to move it.
Attract
Visibility — content, outreach, audience.
Build
Product — creating and improving the offer.
Convert
Sales — calls, launches, follow-up.
Deliver
Fulfilment — serving the people who bought.
Efficiency
Admin — systems, finances, the back office.
Your Eisenhower matrix
Take the tasks left over from the last 30 days — across Attract, Build, Convert, Deliver and Efficiency — and place each one in a quadrant. Important and urgent: rare, do it now. Important but not urgent: your building work — protect it with time blocks. Urgent but not important: delegate or automate it. Neither: delete it.
Important + urgent
Do it now — genuine deadlines on impossible-goal work. Rare.
Drop tasks here
Important + not urgent
The building work. Protect it most — nothing forces you to do it.
Drop tasks here
Urgent + not important
Screams for attention but doesn't matter. Delegate or automate.
Drop tasks here
Not urgent + not important
Should it even be done at all? Delete it.
Drop tasks here
Key ideas — for reference
- This is not sorting a to-do list — it's deciding what even belongs in your business.
- The five departments: Attract, Build, Convert, Deliver, Efficiency.
- Urgent means demanding attention right now — and is often not important at all.
- Important and not urgent is the building work; protect it most because nothing forces you to do it.
- Urgent but not important: delegate it or automate it.
- Not urgent and not important: should it even be done at all?
- Your five verdicts: delete, delegate, automate, defer, decline.
- Fifteen minutes, regularly — this is a system of thought, not more homework.