Originally published October 6, 2024
I've attended thousands of stand-ups and team meetings over my career.
While we will share blockers or struggles through stories and individual experiences, at the core of many is:
Prioritization
Now, unfortunately, I don't have a magic bullet for you.
I think this is such a universal struggle because we live in a world that asks more of us than we are able to give.
Our culture is one of more.
While we can't individually change that culture, we can shift the way we approach prioritization to ensure we aren't sidelining our needs for others.
The Matrix Reimagined
I'm sorry if you were hoping for an in-depth analysis about Neo and Keanu Reeves from the title. (I'll add it to the list of things to tie to productivity and burnout prevention 😉)
On to the topic - which really is about a matrix!
If you've been around business or productivity for any amount of time, you've heard of the Eisenhower Matrix (also similar to the 4 Ds - Do, Defer, Delegate, or Delete).
But what neither of these take into consideration is when you are trying to align your tasks with your energy.
Which is okay, they serve their purpose when you are looking at large scale priorities but they don't really help when you are trying to structure how to tackle things within a single day.
Instead of focusing on just urgency and importance, let's look at urgency and energy using The Energy-Urgency Matrix.
This introduces a crucial dimension: the energy required to complete a task.
By considering both urgency and energy requirements, you can better align your tasks with your natural energy rhythms (hello BRAC cycle!) and capacity.
So what does that look like?
