This is the Eisenhower Matrix.
You've probably seen it before
If you're reading this, you're probably very good at the Important + Urgent tasks.
You probably do too many of the tasks that should be delegated or deleted
It seems so clean and efficient as an infographic.
But life is messy.
I'm going to use the marketing activities I do for my own business as an example
My primary marketing activities are:
- Posting on Twitter
- Posting on LinkedIn
- Writing this newsletter
- Making Youtube videos
- Creating long form sales assets
That list is ordered from lowest effort to highest effort
Funnily enough, it's also from smallest return to greatest return
All of the tasks are important (so none are deletable). I have bought on clients via Twitter.
And I'm not at the point where I can delegate any of these tasks.
If we're honest, most marketing feels like a "Decide" type task - it's important but it isn't urgent
That's where the rock / pebble / sand analogy comes in
You might have heard about this as well - you can't fill your jar up with rocks if you've filled it with sand and pebbles.
If we go back to my list of marketing options, Twitter is the sand.
It's the easiest.
And you can tweet 5-10x a day without anyone thinking you're a lunatic.
It *feels* urgent.
That's the content treadmill people talk about.
At the other end of the spectrum is Youtube. Youtube is a rock - it's proper evergreen content, and a video has the potential to be 100x more impactful than a tweet.
But it's way more effort.
Which is why it needs to be a scheduled priority on my calendar.
It needs to become urgent.
Does it actually matter if the Youtube video is done on a Monday or Wednesday?
The actual answer needs to be yes.
There has to be a day set in stone for the deadline.
Otherwise hitting snooze is too easy.
It's the same reason any recruiting search needs a weekly check in call.
There needs to be a deadline attached to the project.
Otherwise it's just too easy to let things slip away.
It becomes an important, but not urgent thing to do.
We're already in Q4.
2025 will be here before we know it.