The Ultimate Productivity Tool
Welcome to the 613 new members of the curiosity tribe who have joined us since Friday. Join the 75,508 others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week.Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Babbel!Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks!One of my goals for 2022 is to learn a new language. Studies show that learning a language increases the volume and density of gray matter, the volume of white matter, and brain connectivity.Babbel is the tool I’m using to achieve this goal—it’s one of the world’s top language learning platforms and prepares you for situations you’ll actually encounter in real life. I’ve been blown away by the experience thus far—lessons are just 10 minutes and you can start having basic conversations in the new language in just 3 weeks. Plus, you get access to podcasts, games, videos and more.It’s a great household activity to enjoy with your partner and your kids as well!For a limited time, you can join me on this journey and get up to 60% off your subscription by using the link below. Take advantage of this amazing offer and get your language learning on today!Today at a Glance:The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a simple, powerful tool anyone can use to prioritize effectively and enhance daily productivity. It’s a visualization tool that forces you to differentiate between the urgent and the important.The four quadrants of the 2x2 matrix: Important & Urgent (“Do Now”), Important & Not Urgent (“Decide”), Not Important & Urgent (“Delegate”), and Not Important & Not Urgent (“Delete”).The goal is to spend more time on important tasks that further your long-term values, missions, goals, and principles. In Eisenhower Decision Matrix terms: Manage the top-right, optimize for the top-left, and remove the bottom half.The Ultimate Productivity ToolWe’ve all been there.Scrambling from task to task, moving from one stress-inducing fire to the next. The minute one fire is out, another one is sparked. The day becomes an energy-draining fight to survive.The worst part? At the end of it all, it’s hard to point to any substantive progress. There was a lot of movement, but no forward progress—a “rocking horse” day, if you will.Today, I’d like to share a simple, immediately-actionable solution to this all-too-common problem. To set the stage, a short history lesson…Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David Eisenhower—or Ike as his friends called him—was an American military officer and politician born in Denison, Texas in 1890.He was a West Point graduate and rose through the military to achieve the 5-star rank of general in the United States Army. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and led the famed invasion of Normandy from the Western Front.Eisenhower would serve as President of Columbia University and the first Supreme Commander of NATO before being elected as the 34th President of the United States, a role he occupied from 1953 to 1961.As his military and civilian accomplishments indicate, Eisenhower was a highly-effective leader and executive. He became known for his prolific, almost otherworldly productivity.His secret? He never confused the urgent with the important:"What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important." - Dwight D. EisenhowerWith this idea as a foundation, let’s dive into today’s prioritization and productivity solution…The Eisenhower Decision MatrixThe Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a simple, powerful tool anyone can use to prioritize effectively and enhance daily productivity. It’s a visualization tool that forces you to differentiate between the urgent and the important. The matrix was popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Here’s how the 2x2 matrix works:X-Axis: Not Urgent to UrgentY-Axis: Not Important to Important Two key definitions:Urgent: requires immediate, focused attention to complete.Important: promotes or furthers your long-term values, goals, or principles.The four quadrants of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix:Important & UrgentImportant & Not UrgentNot Important & UrgentNot Important & Not UrgentA quick discussion of each…Important & UrgentThese are the tasks that are both important and urgent.They require immediate, focused attention—but also contribute to our long-term vision, goals, or principles.I call these the "Do Now!" tasks. They are time sensitive, but also contribute to real forward progress.Important & Not UrgentThese are the tasks that are important but not very urgent.I like to think of these tasks as the compounders—the tasks that compound long-term value in your life. The most successful people in the world find a way to focus their energy on these tasks.This is where you should try to spend most of your time and energy. You can decide when to attack them, but you need to prioritize this quadrant.Not Important & UrgentThese are the tasks that are not important, but they are urgent and require attention.These tasks are the "beware" category—the tasks that can drain time and energy without contributing to our end goals. These are the fires or random one-offs that leave you feeling drained but without meaningful progress.These are tasks to delegate to someone else—ideally to someone for whom they will be important.Not Important & Not UrgentThese are the tasks that are neither important nor urgent.These are the mindless activities like TV and social media that sap our productivity. Limit your time on these as much as possible.Sahil Note: If these mindless activities help you recharge, they may be "important" for you in some modest quantities. I personally find that watching a show before bed allows me to unwind and shut off to sleep with a clear mind. There is no need to eliminate that from your life, just be honest with yourself about the point at which it is no longer creating value for you. If you have a tough time being disciplined with it—I certainly used to!—schedule time for these activities.The Big PictureOk, so let’s put it all together. What’s the goal here?Spend more time on important tasks that further your long-term values, missions, goals, and principles.In Eisenhower Decision Matrix terms:Manage the top-rightOptimize for the top-leftRemove the bottom halfConclusionTo leverage the Eisenhower Decision Matrix in your life, start by identifying what is important to you.A few questions to get you started:What are your long-term goals?What principles and values do you want to build towards?What tasks in your daily life contribute to those goals, principles, and values?Try planning and executing a week—or even just a day—according to the matrix. I use it weekly and love it.There are plenty of free online tools to help you leverage the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to structure your productivity practice. I use a Notion template, but you can find other pre-built templates quite easily. You can also be like Ike and use a notebook to do it the old fashioned way!Give it a shot and let me know what you think!Where It Happens PodcastBootstrapping An Eight Figure Business with Michael MartocciWatch it on YouTube and listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Want more? Join the 4,000+ in our unique community on Discord.Special thanks to our sponsors for providing us with the support to bring this episode to life.This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the fastest way for investors and M&A teams to learn everything they want to know about a company, all from an on-demand digital platform. Tegus is the most extensive source of instantly-available 1:1 conversations between investors and experts, covering companies from the seed stage to the public markets. Just log in for instant access to 25,000+ transcripts. They are offering you a free 2-week trial at tegus.co/room.This episode is also brought to you by OpenPhone. OpenPhone is an all-in-one business phone system that can help your startup look more credible—and it works right from your existing smartphone or computer. Each phone number comes with its own inbox for managing calls, texts, and voicemails together—making it easy to keep track of every conversation. Sign up and start using your new business number in minutes. Visit OpenPhone.co/room to save 20% on your first six months.Sahil’s Talent CollectiveThere are already 100+ amazing candidates in the collective—coming from companies like Google, Amazon, PayPal, Palantir, Waymo, and Lyft. The group includes a Director of Product Management @ FAANG, Head of Marketing @ Series A Startup, Sr. Product Manager @ Public Tech Co, Web 3 Engineer @ Small Startup, Director Enterprise Partnerships @ Series C Startup, Chief Experience Officer @ Fortune 500 Company, Director of Growth @ Series B Startup, VP Business Development @ Series B Company, and Growth Marketing Lead @ Series A Startup.If you are a company looking for direct matches to the most exciting, high potential talent, use the link below and click “Get a Pass” to receive monthly drops of talent to drive your growth engine!Members of the collective will get exclusive access to opportunities at my favorite high-growth startups across the tech landscape. Completely free for candidates. Use the link below to apply! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sahilbloom.substack.com
Welcome to the 613 new members of the curiosity tribe who have joined us since Friday. Join the 75,508 others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week.
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Babbel!
Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks!
One of my goals for 2022 is to learn a new language. Studies show that learning a language increases the volume and density of gray matter, the volume of white matter, and brain connectivity.
Babbel is the tool I’m using to achieve this goal—it’s one of the world’s top language learning platforms and prepares you for situations you’ll actually encounter in real life. I’ve been blown away by the experience thus far—lessons are just 10 minutes and you can start having basic conversations in the new language in just 3 weeks. Plus, you get access to podcasts, games, videos and more.
It’s a great household activity to enjoy with your partner and your kids as well!
For a limited time, you can join me on this journey and get up to 60% off your subscription by using the link below. Take advantage of this amazing offer and get your language learning on today!
Today at a Glance:
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a simple, powerful tool anyone can use to prioritize effectively and enhance daily productivity. It’s a visualization tool that forces you to differentiate between the urgent and the important.
The four quadrants of the 2x2 matrix: Important & Urgent (“Do Now”), Important & Not Urgent (“Decide”), Not Important & Urgent (“Delegate”), and Not Important & Not Urgent (“Delete”).
The goal is to spend more time on important tasks that further your long-term values, missions, goals, and principles. In Eisenhower Decision Matrix terms: Manage the top-right, optimize for the top-left, and remove the bottom half.
The Ultimate Productivity Tool
We’ve all been there.
Scrambling from task to task, moving from one stress-inducing fire to the next. The minute one fire is out, another one is sparked. The day becomes an energy-draining fight to survive.
The worst part? At the end of it all, it’s hard to point to any substantive progress. There was a lot of movement, but no forward progress—a “rocking horse” day, if you will.
Today, I’d like to share a simple, immediately-actionable solution to this all-too-common problem. To set the stage, a short history lesson…
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David Eisenhower—or Ike as his friends called him—was an American military officer and politician born in Denison, Texas in 1890.
He was a West Point graduate and rose through the military to achieve the 5-star rank of general in the United States Army. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and led the famed invasion of Normandy from the Western Front.
Eisenhower would serve as President of Columbia University and the first Supreme Commander of NATO before being elected as the 34th President of the United States, a role he occupied from 1953 to 1961.
As his military and civilian accomplishments indicate, Eisenhower was a highly-effective leader and executive. He became known for his prolific, almost otherworldly productivity.
His secret? He never confused the urgent with the important:
"What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
With this idea as a foundation, let’s dive into today’s prioritization and productivity solution…
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a simple, powerful tool anyone can use to prioritize effectively and enhance daily productivity. It’s a visualization tool that forces you to differentiate between the urgent and the important. The matrix was popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Here’s how the 2x2 matrix works:
X-Axis: Not Urgent to Urgent
Y-Axis: Not Important to Important
Two key definitions:
Urgent: requires immediate, focused attention to complete.
Important: promotes or furthers your long-term values, goals, or principles.
The four quadrants of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix:
Important & Urgent
Important & Not Urgent
Not Important & Urgent
Not Important & Not Urgent
A quick discussion of each…
Important & Urgent
These are the tasks that are both important and urgent.
They require immediate, focused attention—but also contribute to our long-term vision, goals, or principles.
I call these the "Do Now!" tasks. They are time sensitive, but also contribute to real forward progress.
Important & Not Urgent
These are the tasks that are important but not very urgent.
I like to think of these tasks as the compounders—the tasks that compound long-term value in your life. The most successful people in the world find a way to focus their energy on these tasks.
This is where you should try to spend most of your time and energy. You can decide when to attack them, but you need to prioritize this quadrant.
Not Important & Urgent
These are the tasks that are not important, but they are urgent and require attention.
These tasks are the "beware" category—the tasks that can drain time and energy without contributing to our end goals. These are the fires or random one-offs that leave you feeling drained but without meaningful progress.
These are tasks to delegate to someone else—ideally to someone for whom they will be important.
Not Important & Not Urgent
These are the tasks that are neither important nor urgent.
These are the mindless activities like TV and social media that sap our productivity. Limit your time on these as much as possible.
Sahil Note: If these mindless activities help you recharge, they may be "important" for you in some modest quantities. I personally find that watching a show before bed allows me to unwind and shut off to sleep with a clear mind. There is no need to eliminate that from your life, just be honest with yourself about the point at which it is no longer creating value for you. If you have a tough time being disciplined with it—I certainly used to!—schedule time for these activities.
The Big Picture
Ok, so let’s put it all together. What’s the goal here?
Spend more time on important tasks that further your long-term values, missions, goals, and principles.
In Eisenhower Decision Matrix terms:
Manage the top-right
Optimize for the top-left
Remove the bottom half
Conclusion
To leverage the Eisenhower Decision Matrix in your life, start by identifying what is important to you.
A few questions to get you started:
What are your long-term goals?
What principles and values do you want to build towards?
What tasks in your daily life contribute to those goals, principles, and values?
Try planning and executing a week—or even just a day—according to the matrix. I use it weekly and love it.
There are plenty of free online tools to help you leverage the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to structure your productivity practice. I use a Notion template, but you can find other pre-built templates quite easily. You can also be like Ike and use a notebook to do it the old fashioned way!
Give it a shot and let me know what you think!
Where It Happens Podcast
Bootstrapping An Eight Figure Business with Michael Martocci
Watch it on YouTube and listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Want more? Join the 4,000+ in our unique community on Discord.
Special thanks to our sponsors for providing us with the support to bring this episode to life.
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the fastest way for investors and M&A teams to learn everything they want to know about a company, all from an on-demand digital platform. Tegus is the most extensive source of instantly-available 1:1 conversations between investors and experts, covering companies from the seed stage to the public markets. Just log in for instant access to 25,000+ transcripts. They are offering you a free 2-week trial at tegus.co/room.
This episode is also brought to you by OpenPhone. OpenPhone is an all-in-one business phone system that can help your startup look more credible—and it works right from your existing smartphone or computer. Each phone number comes with its own inbox for managing calls, texts, and voicemails together—making it easy to keep track of every conversation. Sign up and start using your new business number in minutes. Visit OpenPhone.co/room to save 20% on your first six months.
Sahil’s Talent Collective
There are already 100+ amazing candidates in the collective—coming from companies like Google, Amazon, PayPal, Palantir, Waymo, and Lyft. The group includes a Director of Product Management @ FAANG, Head of Marketing @ Series A Startup, Sr. Product Manager @ Public Tech Co, Web 3 Engineer @ Small Startup, Director Enterprise Partnerships @ Series C Startup, Chief Experience Officer @ Fortune 500 Company, Director of Growth @ Series B Startup, VP Business Development @ Series B Company, and Growth Marketing Lead @ Series A Startup.
If you are a company looking for direct matches to the most exciting, high potential talent, use the link below and click “Get a Pass” to receive monthly drops of talent to drive your growth engine!
Members of the collective will get exclusive access to opportunities at my favorite high-growth startups across the tech landscape. Completely free for candidates. Use the link below to apply!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sahilbloom.substack.com
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Babbel!
Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks!
One of my goals for 2022 is to learn a new language. Studies show that learning a language increases the volume and density of gray matter, the volume of white matter, and brain connectivity.
Babbel is the tool I’m using to achieve this goal—it’s one of the world’s top language learning platforms and prepares you for situations you’ll actually encounter in real life. I’ve been blown away by the experience thus far—lessons are just 10 minutes and you can start having basic conversations in the new language in just 3 weeks. Plus, you get access to podcasts, games, videos and more.
It’s a great household activity to enjoy with your partner and your kids as well!
For a limited time, you can join me on this journey and get up to 60% off your subscription by using the link below. Take advantage of this amazing offer and get your language learning on today!
Today at a Glance:
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a simple, powerful tool anyone can use to prioritize effectively and enhance daily productivity. It’s a visualization tool that forces you to differentiate between the urgent and the important.
The four quadrants of the 2x2 matrix: Important & Urgent (“Do Now”), Important & Not Urgent (“Decide”), Not Important & Urgent (“Delegate”), and Not Important & Not Urgent (“Delete”).
The goal is to spend more time on important tasks that further your long-term values, missions, goals, and principles. In Eisenhower Decision Matrix terms: Manage the top-right, optimize for the top-left, and remove the bottom half.
The Ultimate Productivity Tool
We’ve all been there.
Scrambling from task to task, moving from one stress-inducing fire to the next. The minute one fire is out, another one is sparked. The day becomes an energy-draining fight to survive.
The worst part? At the end of it all, it’s hard to point to any substantive progress. There was a lot of movement, but no forward progress—a “rocking horse” day, if you will.
Today, I’d like to share a simple, immediately-actionable solution to this all-too-common problem. To set the stage, a short history lesson…
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David Eisenhower—or Ike as his friends called him—was an American military officer and politician born in Denison, Texas in 1890.
He was a West Point graduate and rose through the military to achieve the 5-star rank of general in the United States Army. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and led the famed invasion of Normandy from the Western Front.
Eisenhower would serve as President of Columbia University and the first Supreme Commander of NATO before being elected as the 34th President of the United States, a role he occupied from 1953 to 1961.
As his military and civilian accomplishments indicate, Eisenhower was a highly-effective leader and executive. He became known for his prolific, almost otherworldly productivity.
His secret? He never confused the urgent with the important:
"What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
With this idea as a foundation, let’s dive into today’s prioritization and productivity solution…
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix is a simple, powerful tool anyone can use to prioritize effectively and enhance daily productivity. It’s a visualization tool that forces you to differentiate between the urgent and the important. The matrix was popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Here’s how the 2x2 matrix works:
X-Axis: Not Urgent to Urgent
Y-Axis: Not Important to Important
Two key definitions:
Urgent: requires immediate, focused attention to complete.
Important: promotes or furthers your long-term values, goals, or principles.
The four quadrants of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix:
Important & Urgent
Important & Not Urgent
Not Important & Urgent
Not Important & Not Urgent
A quick discussion of each…
Important & Urgent
These are the tasks that are both important and urgent.
They require immediate, focused attention—but also contribute to our long-term vision, goals, or principles.
I call these the "Do Now!" tasks. They are time sensitive, but also contribute to real forward progress.
Important & Not Urgent
These are the tasks that are important but not very urgent.
I like to think of these tasks as the compounders—the tasks that compound long-term value in your life. The most successful people in the world find a way to focus their energy on these tasks.
This is where you should try to spend most of your time and energy. You can decide when to attack them, but you need to prioritize this quadrant.
Not Important & Urgent
These are the tasks that are not important, but they are urgent and require attention.
These tasks are the "beware" category—the tasks that can drain time and energy without contributing to our end goals. These are the fires or random one-offs that leave you feeling drained but without meaningful progress.
These are tasks to delegate to someone else—ideally to someone for whom they will be important.
Not Important & Not Urgent
These are the tasks that are neither important nor urgent.
These are the mindless activities like TV and social media that sap our productivity. Limit your time on these as much as possible.
Sahil Note: If these mindless activities help you recharge, they may be "important" for you in some modest quantities. I personally find that watching a show before bed allows me to unwind and shut off to sleep with a clear mind. There is no need to eliminate that from your life, just be honest with yourself about the point at which it is no longer creating value for you. If you have a tough time being disciplined with it—I certainly used to!—schedule time for these activities.
The Big Picture
Ok, so let’s put it all together. What’s the goal here?
Spend more time on important tasks that further your long-term values, missions, goals, and principles.
In Eisenhower Decision Matrix terms:
Manage the top-right
Optimize for the top-left
Remove the bottom half
Conclusion
To leverage the Eisenhower Decision Matrix in your life, start by identifying what is important to you.
A few questions to get you started:
What are your long-term goals?
What principles and values do you want to build towards?
What tasks in your daily life contribute to those goals, principles, and values?
Try planning and executing a week—or even just a day—according to the matrix. I use it weekly and love it.
There are plenty of free online tools to help you leverage the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to structure your productivity practice. I use a Notion template, but you can find other pre-built templates quite easily. You can also be like Ike and use a notebook to do it the old fashioned way!
Give it a shot and let me know what you think!
Where It Happens Podcast
Bootstrapping An Eight Figure Business with Michael Martocci
Watch it on YouTube and listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Want more? Join the 4,000+ in our unique community on Discord.
Special thanks to our sponsors for providing us with the support to bring this episode to life.
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the fastest way for investors and M&A teams to learn everything they want to know about a company, all from an on-demand digital platform. Tegus is the most extensive source of instantly-available 1:1 conversations between investors and experts, covering companies from the seed stage to the public markets. Just log in for instant access to 25,000+ transcripts. They are offering you a free 2-week trial at tegus.co/room.
This episode is also brought to you by OpenPhone. OpenPhone is an all-in-one business phone system that can help your startup look more credible—and it works right from your existing smartphone or computer. Each phone number comes with its own inbox for managing calls, texts, and voicemails together—making it easy to keep track of every conversation. Sign up and start using your new business number in minutes. Visit OpenPhone.co/room to save 20% on your first six months.
Sahil’s Talent Collective
There are already 100+ amazing candidates in the collective—coming from companies like Google, Amazon, PayPal, Palantir, Waymo, and Lyft. The group includes a Director of Product Management @ FAANG, Head of Marketing @ Series A Startup, Sr. Product Manager @ Public Tech Co, Web 3 Engineer @ Small Startup, Director Enterprise Partnerships @ Series C Startup, Chief Experience Officer @ Fortune 500 Company, Director of Growth @ Series B Startup, VP Business Development @ Series B Company, and Growth Marketing Lead @ Series A Startup.
If you are a company looking for direct matches to the most exciting, high potential talent, use the link below and click “Get a Pass” to receive monthly drops of talent to drive your growth engine!
Members of the collective will get exclusive access to opportunities at my favorite high-growth startups across the tech landscape. Completely free for candidates. Use the link below to apply!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sahilbloom.substack.com
