Is the Eisenhower matrix the same as a priority matrix?

A priority matrix is any grid that ranks tasks on two scales, such as effort and impact. The Eisenhower matrix is the best-known version: its scales are urgent and important, and each of its four boxes comes with an action.

What if every task feels urgent and important?

Ask what would happen if each task waited a week. Only the ones with a real consequence stay in Do; the rest move to Decide with a date, and a full Do box is usually a sign that deadlines are being set too late.

How often should I update an Eisenhower matrix?

Tick the checkboxes when you add a task, then review the whole matrix once a week and whenever a new deadline lands. Urgency changes as dates get closer, so a task in Decide often moves to Do later.

Why is it called the Eisenhower matrix?

It is named after US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who drew a distinction between urgent and important problems. The four-box grid built on that idea was popularized later, notably by Stephen Covey.

Eisenhower Matrix Template for Google Sheets and Excel

This Eisenhower matrix template sorts every task into one of four boxes from two checkboxes. Tick both important and urgent and the task lands in To Do; important only goes to To Decide; urgent only goes to To Delegate; neither goes to To Delete. It is built into our project management spreadsheet for Google Sheets and Excel, and it suits anyone whose task list is longer than their week.

What the Eisenhower Matrix Template Tracks

You do not fill in the matrix itself. You tick important, urgent or both on each task in the task list, the decision is filled in for you, and the decision matrix tab shows every task in its box:

Important	Urgent	Box	What you do
Yes	Yes	To Do	Do it now, today if you can
Yes	No	To Decide	Choose when, and put a date on it
No	Yes	To Delegate	Hand it to someone and name the owner
No	No	To Delete	Drop it, or park it on a someday list

A few details make it more useful than a four-box drawing:

Recurring tasks are included. Unlike the Kanban board and the Gantt chart, the matrix shows recurring tasks next to one-off tasks, so a weekly report competes for attention with project work, as it does in real life.
Filters by month, done status and project. Look at October only, hide finished tasks, or see one client’s work.
A completed count shows how many tasks you have already cleared.
The same decision colors your calendar. The monthly and weekly calendars can color tasks by decision, so a To Do task stands out on the day it is due.

Worked Example: A Design Studio’s October List

Here is a small design studio’s October list in mid-month, with two recurring tasks among the one-off ones:

Task	Project	Important	Urgent	Box	Done
Fix the checkout bug on a client site	Clinic site	Yes	Yes	To Do	Yes
Send October invoices (monthly)	Admin	Yes	Yes	To Do	Yes
Client revisions due Friday	Clinic site	Yes	Yes	To Do	No
Prepare a Q1 proposal for a returning client	Sales	Yes	No	To Decide	No
Add three recent projects to the portfolio	Marketing	Yes	No	To Decide	No
Take an accessibility refresher course	Training	Yes	No	To Decide	Yes
Reply to a supplier’s quote request	Admin	No	Yes	To Delegate	Yes
Book a room for the client workshop	Clinic site	No	Yes	To Delegate	No
Post the weekly studio update (weekly)	Marketing	No	Yes	To Delegate	Yes
Resize images for the blog	Marketing	No	Yes	To Delegate	No
Redesign the email signature	Admin	No	No	To Delete	No
Reorganize old project folders	Admin	No	No	To Delete	No

Counted box by box, October looks like this:

Box	Tasks	Done	Still open
To Do	3	2	1
To Decide	3	1	2
To Delegate	4	2	2
To Delete	2	0	2
Total	12	5	7

Five of twelve tasks are done, about 42%, and the open list is easy to act on. The client revisions are the only open To Do task, so they come first today. The Q1 proposal and the portfolio update are important but undated, which is how important work turns urgent later: each gets a slot on the calendar this week. The room booking and the blog images need an owner, not the studio lead’s time. The two To Delete tasks can simply go.

Filter by the Admin project and a pattern shows: four tasks, but only one is in To Do, one is delegable and two belong in To Delete. Admin feels busy without being important, which is useful to know when you plan the next month.

How to Set Up the Matrix in the Spreadsheet

On the setup tab, add your people, statuses and project categories.
List your projects on the project manager tab, including an internal one such as Admin for non-client work.
Enter one-off tasks on the variable tasks tab. For each, tick important, urgent, both or neither. Ticking neither sends a task to To Delete, which is a prompt to reconsider it; nothing is removed from your list.
Add routine work on the recurring tasks tab with its frequency, so it shows up in the matrix alongside project tasks.
Open the decision matrix tab and set the month, the project and whether to show done tasks.
Work the To Do box first. For To Delegate, set an owner on the task; for To Decide, give it a start or due date.

Urgent Versus Important: The Method in Brief

The matrix is only as good as your two ticks, so settle the definitions before you start:

Urgent means time-bound: due in the next few days, or someone is blocked until it is done.
Important means it moves a goal, a project or a commitment forward. If skipping it would still matter a month from now, it is important.

Most people over-tick urgent. A request arriving by email feels urgent, but unless it has a near deadline or blocks someone, it is not. For four filled-in matrices (a manager, a freelancer, a student and a parent), see our Eisenhower matrix examples.

The Delegate box only works with a proper handoff: what done looks like, the deadline and when you will check in. How to delegate tasks has a handoff checklist. If two checkboxes feel too blunt for your list, how to prioritize tasks compares the matrix with MoSCoW, ABCDE and other methods, and how to manage recurring tasks covers routine work, which often ends up in the Delegate box.

The matrix decides what to work on; the Kanban board template then shows how that work is moving.

Build Your Own Eisenhower Matrix in Google Sheets or Excel

Columns. A: Task, B: Important, C: Urgent, D: Box, E: Done, F: Due date, G: Project.

Checkboxes for B, C and E. In Google Sheets, select the cells and choose Insert > Checkbox. Recent versions of Excel for Microsoft 365 have Insert > Checkbox too; in older versions, use a TRUE/FALSE dropdown (Data > Data Validation > List).

The box in D2, identical in both apps:

=IF(A2="", "", IF(AND(B2=TRUE, C2=TRUE), "Do", IF(B2=TRUE, "Decide", IF(C2=TRUE, "Delegate", "Delete"))))

The first IF keeps empty rows blank, so they do not pile up in Delete, and the =TRUE tests treat an unset dropdown as unticked instead of returning an error.

Each quadrant as a list. Put the first day of the month in H1 (for example 10/1/2026) and build one list per box. This one shows open Do tasks due that month:

Google Sheets: =IFERROR(FILTER(A2:A100, D2:D100="Do", E2:E100=FALSE, F2:F100>=H1, F2:F100<EDATE(H1, 1)), "Nothing here")
Excel: =FILTER(A2:A100, (D2:D100="Do")*(E2:E100=FALSE)*(F2:F100>=H1)*(F2:F100<EDATE(H1, 1)), "Nothing here")

Google Sheets takes each condition as a separate argument, while Excel multiplies them into one. Swap “Do” for “Decide”, “Delegate” and “Delete” to fill the other three boxes, and add a project condition on column G the same way.

Completed count, the same in both apps: =COUNTIFS(D2:D100, "Do", E2:E100, TRUE) gives done tasks in the Do box, and =COUNTIF(E2:E100, TRUE)/COUNTA(A2:A100) gives the share of all tasks done (format it as a percentage).

Who This Eisenhower Matrix Template Suits

It suits you if:

your task list is longer than the time you have, and you need a fast way to decide what goes;
you manage people and want a clear list of what to hand off;
you mix client work, admin and routine tasks and want them judged on the same scale.

It adds little if your work arrives already ranked, such as a support queue where every ticket has a response time. There, a priority column or a simple board does the job with fewer clicks.

A good weekly habit: open the To Decide box first on Monday, not To Do. To Do takes care of itself because it is urgent; the important, undated work in To Decide is what quietly slips if nobody gives it a date.