Blank Eisenhower Matrix: How to Fill It In, With a Printable PDF

A blank Eisenhower matrix is a page with four empty boxes. You write each task in the box that fits two answers: is it urgent, and is it important. The page does not decide anything for you. It makes you answer the same two questions for every task, in writing, so a crowded list turns into an order.

If you want the page first, print the blank one-page Eisenhower matrix PDF for A4 or US Letter. It has four labelled boxes with 8 ruled lines in each, black and white, and nothing to sign up for. The rest of this post is how to fill it in.

What is on a blank matrix

• Two columns, Urgent and Not urgent, and two rows, Important and Not important.
• Four boxes, numbered by what you do with them: 1. Do now (urgent and important), 2. Schedule (important, not urgent), 3. Delegate (urgent, not important), 4. Delete (neither).
• A line for the date, and a line for the one task you will start with.

How to fill it in, in six steps

1. Empty your head first. List everything on your mind on scrap paper or the back of the sheet. Sorting is easier when you are not also trying to remember.
2. Ask whether it is urgent. Urgent means a real deadline or consequence in the next day or two. "Someone asked recently" is not a deadline.
3. Ask whether it is important. Important means it moves a goal you care about, or skipping it would cost you something that matters. If you cannot name the goal, it is probably not important to you.
4. Write the task in the matching box. One task per line. If nearly everything lands in box 1, ask of each task what happens if it waits until next week, and move the ones where the honest answer is "nothing much".
5. Give every Schedule task a day. Box 2 holds the work nobody will chase you for, so it only happens if it has a date next to it.
6. Pick one box 1 task and copy it to the top line. Start there. Name a person beside each Delegate task, or a time when you will clear several in one go, and cross out box 4 once you have looked at it.

A small filled example

A student, on a Sunday evening:

• 1. Do now: finish the chemistry lab write-up due Monday; pay the exam fee that closes tomorrow.
• 2. Schedule: start the history essay (Tuesday, 1 hour); revise chapter 4 (Wednesday, 45 minutes); book a dentist visit (Thursday).
• 3. Delegate: ask a group-mate to book the study room; reply to the club survey in one batch on Friday.
• 4. Delete: a third rewatch of a lecture already understood; checking the group chat every ten minutes.

For many more filled boxes, see Eisenhower matrix examples by quadrant.

Daily sheet or weekly sheet?

Either works. A daily sheet sorts what is in front of you this morning. A weekly sheet is better for seeing how much of your time goes to box 2. Write the date on every sheet and keep them: after a few weeks you can compare them and see whether box 1 is shrinking.

Paper or on screen?

Paper suits a ten-minute sort at a desk. If you would rather type, the free Eisenhower Matrix in your browser lets you type a task, click its box and download the result, with no account. Either way, pair it with a first task: the Eat the Frog method is one way to choose which box 1 task to start with.

Questions

What are the four boxes of the Eisenhower matrix?

Do now (urgent and important), Schedule (important, not urgent), Delegate (urgent, not important) and Delete (neither). The printable sheet numbers them 1 to 4 in that order.

Can I type into the PDF?

No. The file is a flat page for printing and writing on, not a fillable form. To type instead, use the online matrix linked above.

Why does everything end up in box 1?

Because "urgent" is being answered by how it feels, not by a deadline. Ask what actually happens if the task waits a week. If the answer is nothing much, it is not urgent.