One of the challenges that pastors are facing right now is how to decide what tasks to do and when, especially since the sheer number of them (partly a holdover from Covid times, partly the generalist nature of ministry) feels so daunting.

Recently one of my coachees introduced me to the Eisenhower Matrix. It was developed by President Dwight Eisenhower as a prioritization tool. It offers a way to sift responsibilities into quadrants according to importance and urgency, thus making it more useful than a to-do list, which makes it look like all actions have equal weight. Here’s an example:

Note: You don’t have to put steps in the same boxes I did. Importance and urgency will vary by minister and ministry setting.

Once you put your to-dos in the boxes, then you can make an action plan. Take care of the pieces that are both important and urgent. Delegate the urgent but not important ones. Plan for blocks of time to address the important but not urgent. Don’t even bother with steps that are neither urgent nor important.

You could use this matrix daily or weekly to help you figure out what you actually need to get done, not what your straight to-do list or other people say you need to accomplish. If you get stuck at any point in sifting the jobs or implementing the matrix, that’s useful information too.

For some of my coachees the matrix has resulted in some big picture vocational awareness and for others it’s made their roles feel more manageable. So if you are drowning in work, give this tool a try and reflect on what you learn.