Bit of an unusual title for a blog? True, Now for some context – watch this short clip shared by New York Historical Society and come back. This was a political public announcement of President Eisenhower (Dwight David Eisenhower) during his 34th presidential campaign.
As per the sources on the Internet, between the years 1892-1909, in Kansas, when Dwight and his elder brother were in school, Dwight’s older brother was nicknamed “Big Ike” and he became “Little Ike”. This nickname followed him to West Point to the United States Military Academy where “little” was dropped and this followed him till his time to the presidency of the United States from January 20, 1953-January 20, 1961.
A quick glance at President Eisenhower’s achievements
During his two terms as president, he led many important contributions like the construction of interstate highway System, creating NASA, bringing armistice to Korean War; promoting Atoms for Peace; dealing with crises in Lebanon, Suez, Berlin, and Hungary, establishing the U.S. Information Agency, welcomed Alaska and Hawaii into the union and managed to keep the cold war with Russia cold.
Before becoming President, he served as a general in the United States Army and as the Allied Forces Supreme Commander during World War II. He also later became NATO’s first supreme commander.
Amazed! Yes? I was too when I first read about President Eisenhower’s accomplishments during one of my research.
You can read more about President Eisenhower at Eisenhower library If you wish to know more about his life.
How President Eisenhower was able to achieve this much in his lifetime?
Thanks to social media, very often we hear about so many notorious personalities like President Dwight. We hear they have accomplished so many things. Achieving in their lifetime which will not be possible for any of us to even imagine.
Have you ever wondered how some of these legends were able to knot their life in such a poetic manner. What these guys were doing that others were not?
All of us have the same 24 hours in a day, yet only a few have done so much. How many times, has it happened to you when you have spent all of your time managing crises or fires and at the end of the day, you feel completely drained and yet have nothing to find of real significance.
President Eisenhower during one of the speeches stated:
What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
I find this particular line left a deep impact on me, and this may be the difference between people like President Dwight and people like us.
Very often, I find myself questioning where my priority lies in any given situation? If there are multiple crises – then everything is important and during such time how to prioritize and plan for long goals to achieve the most? Yes, this is a tricky problem. Let us now see what President Eisenhower has to say about this:
Who can define for us with accuracy the difference between the long and short term! Especially whenever our affairs seem to be in crisis, we are almost compelled to give our first attention to the urgent present rather than to the important future.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 address to the Century Association
To make it more clear, President Eisenhower explained that it is imminent to see what is urgent now or what can be pushed to later. Basically trick lies in finding what is most beneficial for the future time.
Today, we know that theory as the “Eisenhower Matrix” or “Eisenhower Method” of time management.
Per President Dwight, this theory helped him prioritize and deal with many high-stake crises he faced as US Army General, as President of the United States, and eventually, as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Forces.
Though President Eisenhower has only conceptualized this. Decades later, author Stephan Covey created a framework and popularized it in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
What we can do to align our time with important things?
I know what you are thinking “This is straightforward and someone else can not categorize this for me”.
And Yes, you are absolutely correct. A person himself/herself needs to measure what is important to them using the framework. We will discuss this framework in the later part of the blog.
How to use Eisenhower Matrix to measure and improve productivity – can help you design your Day in the most productive way. I have tried to simplify the above concepts and created a template in the most easy-to-understand and use format.
This is a 10-day exercise where you add your activities every hour during your work day or for the time you want to be optimized. With this activity, you may also analyze your daily tasks. For example – if this was really a meeting or task that needed your time OR if could it be done without your presence?
Thus, categorizing and prioritizing your tasks accordingly. At the end of the day check the pattern of your most productive tasks along with the least ones, trying to enhance the former and fade out on the latter.
At the end of the few days(around the 5th day), you will start seeing an impact where you will start to get more time for tasks of real significance.
Eisenhower Method to avoid/dodge ‘Monday Blues’ – can help you categorize the task on the right quadrant of the Eisenhower Matrix.
If you wish to know more about the Eisenhower matrix and how can we use it in the most optimized way then you can check out this page for the – stepwise process to use Eisenhower and improve productivity.
If you love to work on Excel and it is your bread and butter then this – Excel template for the Eisenhower Matrix is nothing less than a treat for you. This Excel template not only lets you add your hourly tasks but also gives you a graphical presentation of your tasks. Read more about it here.
