Eisenhower Matrix Effective Time Management Technique in Education

Effective time management techniques are important. We all complain about lack of time and not being able to complete our work, and we get stressed due to time pressure. We witness that even people who can fit more than one job in a day, who we think use their time efficiently, talk about the lack of time. All day long we talk about the urgency and importance of our work and at the end of the day we feel the pain of not being able to finish most of it. However, a day consists of 24 hours and the potential of the works that can be planned and completed for one day is clear. When the time of a day is so clear, why do we not keep up with our work and why do we put too many things to do in a certain time?

If you are not good at time management, we will teach you some time management skills that you can perform. By following these, you can use your time more efficiently. So what is time management? Why is time management important? What are effective time management techniques? In the rest of our article, we will discuss time management in detail for you.

We know that the day is 24 hours, 7 days a week, and we have a total of 168 hours of 24 hours each. If we are working or a student, we know our working hours and class hours. We know how many hours we sleep on average per day and how many hours we spend on the road. In other words, we are aware of all our responsibilities and needs, which waste our time and are not under our management. So why can't we make use of the remaining time?

We can start with the Eisenhower Matrix technique, which is a practical and enjoyable method to use for effective time management techniques. This technique was developed by the former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower. A coordinate divided into 4 quadrants is drawn to determine the urgency and importance of the work to be done according to this technique. The jobs that need to be done are categorized as non-urgent-unimportant jobs, urgent but unimportant jobs, non-urgent important jobs, urgent and important jobs, and put in order of priority.

Non-Urgent - Junk Jobs

Works outside of our areas of responsibility, for which we do not feel time pressure, and which we mostly do for pleasure, fall into this group. Spending time on social media and the internet, playing games, talking on the phone are non-urgent and non-vital jobs that can be included in this group. Being busy with this kind of work has a time-destroying effect, especially during periods when we need to use our time more effectively. They are jobs that do not move us forward academically or have no financial return.

Urgent-Non-Important Jobs

Jobs that we often fail to say no to, and where the requests and requests of others divide our time, can be included in this group. E.g; Your friend calls you when you have important things to take care of first and wants to meet you for coffee an hour later. If you cannot say no, you need to prepare for an interview that will take place in 1 hour. Moreover, when the time you will lose on the way and the time that will pass during the interview is calculated, you will have much less time left for your important work waiting for you when you return home. It is a time management skill to be able to say no and to postpone non-vital tasks to other times in such situations.

Non-urgent-Important Jobs

The university exam to be taken after 1 year is important. But it is not urgent to prepare for this exam now. However, the fact that it is not urgent does not mean that it is of permanent deferrable importance. Starting from today, studying in a planned manner and completing the deficiencies are the necessary preparations to be successful in the exam.

Urgent- Important Jobs

The works collected in this category are mostly our last-minute and important works, since we cannot manage time well. In business life, requests from our managers can sometimes fall into this category. With effective time management, these tasks can be prevented from being left to the last minute. However, if our working conditions are open to such surprises, it would be useful to leave gaps in our time plan for such works in order not to experience stress.