once you've created that your overarching goals whether that's making
electric cars more affordable the ability to live on Mars or just making
more efficient batteries it's time to list the tasks and the check points that
you'll need in order to achieve that goal
everyone can set a goal but not everyone can accomplish their goals like Elon
Musk not all of these tasks have to be completed by you or have to be completed
at the moment use something called the Eisenhower matrix to split up your tasks
and organize what has to be done today whether that's by you or others in order
to reach your goal so what is an Eisenhower matrix the Eisenhower matrix
was named after the US President Dwight Eisenhower Eisenhower had a lot of
powerful positions throughout his life just like Elon including the first
Supreme Commander of NATO the matrix he created separates tasks and a four main
sections based on urgency and importance organizing tasks through the Eisenhower
matrix allows you to prioritize your tasks and focus on the ones that will
most effectively help you accomplish your goals quicker Eisenhower matrices
can be used for daily weekly or monthly tasks and the four sections of the
Eisenhower matrix are due scheduled delegate and eliminate now I've actually
used this exact formula the Eisenhower matrix to write an e-book about 120
productivity hacks just for you if you're interested you can check it out
after this video so how do we prioritize tasks with this new Eisenhower matrix
when you start your day write down a list of tasks that you have to complete
as you look at each task ask yourself some following questions is it important
that I complete this task right now how urgent is a task when must it actually
be completed by how important is my personal supervision and participation
in this task do I actually need to be in a certain place to complete the task or
maybe even sign documents and where does this task need to be completed
are there any other tasks that I can complete alongside this task or I'm in
the same place this simple assessment is critical for batching and prioritizing
your tasks throughout the day if you haven't watched any of my other videos
batching tasks is a term used to describe a process of grouping similar
tasks together based on what you have to do or where the tasks have to be
completed so let's move on to actually explaining what the four quadrants of
the eisenhower matrix actually are so the first one is due now these tasks are
the most important and the most urgent tasks on your checklist out of all the
tasks of the day you should be able to check these tasks off your list by the
end of the day or the end of the week once you have organized your task into
the eisenhower matrix it's time to check the Dune out
Escalus off your list when you're creating the do now quadrant consider
your schedule for the day in what tasks you can actually batch together if you
see a list of similar tasks and your do later or your delegate quadrant which
we'll talk about later including tasks that must be completed in the same
location consider putting all these tasks together if you want to organize
your day even further make a list of times when you will complete each of
your do now tasks I recommend setting deadlines for when you consider now
rather than later you want to do all of your do now tasks by noon or maybe 5:00
in the afternoon or by the end of this week include a specific time in your do
now task in order to keep you on track the next quadrant is to do later which
also means this schedule quadrant tasks that are important but they're not
urgent they can be placed in the do later quadrant once you put these tasks
in the do later quadrant do not leave them alone you need to schedule them if
these tasks are meant to be put off in the future schedule a time in the future
that you will actually move them into the do now quadrant and then address
these tasks on your to-do list and if you're familiar with Stephens Covey
similar matrix you'll understand that this category of things that are
important but not urgent usually require the most focus because if you can finish
them in time you'll have nothing in the importance and urgent quadrant which can
also be called emergencies remember these tasks are also still
important but just not as urgent they don't need to be done right now do later
tasks still have to get done just not today or this week unimportant tasks
should be placed in the eliminate quadrant which is something we'll talk
about shortly the next quadrant is the delegation tasks tasks might also be
important but they also might not require your supervision these tasks
should be delegated to others delegating or outsourcing big tasks as someone can
be hard for people who like to be in control but it can be an enormous help
when your to-do list is piling up and running out of time in fact Elon Musk is
a master of using leverage which is allowing other people to accomplish a
task they may be better at or even quicker at while he can work on the
tasks that have the highest return of value to him so how do you know if a
task should be delegated if the following statements apply you can hand
this task off to someone else if you're not required to sign off or
even be present for those tasks you should probably delegate them if you
have a team member an employee or a friend who has the time and the skills
to do that task for you or maybe even better
you should probably outsource it and if you can effectively communicate your
goals and the direction to the person who is taking over the task also you
should probably outsource it depending on the length of each task you may need
follow up with a person who is now taking on that task also consider any
editing or feedback that you might need in order to complete the task while
you're creating your task list training people to delegate for you is important
otherwise your work and your final output might suffer and the people that
you're training their bad habits will be reinforced over time now these are great
examples of do later tasks that you can schedule throughout the rest of your day
or week also the act of delegating your initial tasks should be part of your do
now list of tasks so that you can get these tasks completed as soon as
possible by having someone else do them handing the task over to one person
saves you the time of voicing your objectives the standards and the
feedback throughout the job if you do it right and you train someone correctly
you will get consistent results and the last quadrant is to eliminate tasks that
are unimportant and they're not urgent can be placed in the eliminate category
this list does not have to be eliminated completely but it should be set aside
until all of your other tasks are completed scheduled or delegated the
goal of this quadrant is to focus on the more important task if you try to cram
too many tasks into one day each task might be completed in a rush and the
quality of work will suffer so instead prioritize the quality of your work over
the quantity of tick marks that you can add to your to-do list
once you have set up an eisenhower matrix for your day it's time to get
started on your do now tasks I hope this video helped you understand something
called an eisenhower matrix and ultimately helps you become more
productive understanding the eisenhower matrix is just one of a bunch of
productivity hacks you can use to increase your efficiency all the way up
to Elon Musk's level if you're interested I've actually written an
entire ebook including 119 other productivity life hacks that you can
utilize yourself to start accomplishing your goals even quicker check out the
link in the description if you're interested and thank you guys so much
for watching I hope you got value in this video and I'll see you in the next
one