You are not a “productivity machine”: Adapting the Priority Matrix to embrace your humanity

Responding to the binary

I personally discovered the priority matrix (the “Four Quadrants” by Stephen Covey) when I started training as an executive functioning coach. It was a novel idea to me; you can classify your tasks into categories based on how urgent and how important they are; it’ll put your priorities into perspective. Over the years, however, I realized that the matrix, as it was first articulated, creates problems. Using these two binaries, important/not important and urgent/not urgent, is too restrictive in a world where we understand that neurodiversity is real*; it’s too restrictive in a world where we realize that focus isn’t inexhaustible; it’s too restrictive in a world where we understand, neurologically and pedagogically, that people need breaks and people need to prioritize their self-care and mental health.

A Limiting Perspective

Looking over the many versions of the priority matrix (you can just run an image search to see) it’s easy to see how this binary has turned into a very rigid system that prioritizes certain things and devalues others. I see the boxes with different names, all detailing a very productivity-centric worldview: if something doesn’t help the bottom line, ignore it or give it to someone else to do, they say. To me, coming from a more holistic perspective, I can no longer recommend this to my students and clients.

We have been acculturated into a society that values productivity; we equate one’s ability to produce with one’s value, their worth. Not only is that ableist at its very core, it also goes against how neurodiverse people, an increasingly growing number of folks**, think about our time, energy, and tasks on our to-do list.

The traditional priority matrix is broken down like this:

Urgent AND important — do it now

Important BUT NOT urgent — do it soon

Urgent BUT NOT important- delegate it to someone else

NOT urgent AND NOT important- ignore it

There is, of course, value in viewing things in this way. But it’s also missing a critical part of the human experience. We are not just cogs in a wheel. We are not productivity machines. We are humans with needs. As humans, we need balance, and many people need to remember that balance. Intentionally is essential for many folks to find the time for self-care. Most Americans don’t believe self-care is possible, but many resolve to do more self-care after the pandemic.

My Solution

What’s my solution? Changing how we think about our daily tasks. Instead of urgency, I use effort. In this way, you’re taking your physical, mental, and emotional selves into consideration. We can use the Spoon Theory to understand this better.

A Quick Look into Spoon Theory

For my folks with chronic health illnesses and mental health concerns, you should be familiar with this. It’s a helpful way to understand the energy we use throughout a day. Imagine you wake up with only a certain number of spoons; a spoon is a unit of physical, mental, or emotional energy. Each task of the day requires a certain number of spoons. Taking a shower, for example, might cost one person two spoons — it might cost another five. Once you run out of spoons for the day, it is a struggle to do what we know needs to be done. However, there are ways to generate more spoons — self-care, time, and restorative practices.

Along the x-axis, we can now think about how much effort something will take, as well as activities that can add spoons!

Back to the Adapted Priority Matrix

Something that is takes a lot of effort and is important should be your focus, your priority. But on top of all of your to-do list items for school, work, and life, you can intentionally add self-care and other restorative practices to your day. Something important, but doesn’t take a lot of effort or restores you could be doing 10 minutes of mindfulness or exercising for 30 minutes between meetings or classes. Maybe something that can add some spoons, but isn’t super important in the moment can include cleaning up your bedroom or kitchen. For the final quadrant, I like to think of it as everything else — those things we like to do and helps create a balanced life — watching a TV show, your favorite YouTuber, or spending time on Instagram. We can celebrate all that we do in the day when we add intentionality with not only what we do, but when and for how long.

Exercise is important. Diet is important. Sleep is important. Social connectedness is important. You can achieve balance by using the priority matrix in conjunction with, say, the Pomodoro Method and intentionally cycle through the various quadrants, finding a balance between productivity and rest, stress and release. We’ve been bamboozled into thinking about our day purely as a metric of what we can produce. I implore you to consider changing how you think about your time, your to-do list, and your self.

*I believe that neurodiversity includes people with a wide range of disabilities, including autism, learning and attention disabilities, mental health concerns, and chronic health illnesses

**Some Statistics

ADHD diagnoses increased 42% in an 8-year period (2003–2011) (CDC)

Autism prevalence increased ~300% in a 16-year period (2000–2016) (CDC)

1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year (NAMI)

1 in 3 U.S. college students experience mental illness each year (APA)

As many as 1 in 5 people live with a learning disability (NCLD)

Traumatic Brain Injury rates increased by 54% over an 8-year period (2006–2014) (CDC)