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Guide 1 of 6 · About 2 minutes

Sort your first task

Eisenhour sorts everything with two questions: is it important, and is it urgent? The answers put a task in one of four quadrants. In this guide you capture one task, find it in the Inbox and decide where it belongs. The task in the screenshots is invented, so use one of your own.

Updated September 2026 · Eisenhour 1.0.3 · 5 steps · screenshots show an invented person

  1. Type the task on the Matrix tab

    Open the Matrix tab and tap the field that says Throw a task at it. Type what you need to do (here, Plan the Lisbon trip) and tap the plus button. You do not have to decide anything else yet.

    The Matrix tab with Plan the Lisbon trip typed into the capture field and the keyboard open. Search, Inbox and Done sit above the field, and the Q1 Do quadrant is partly behind the keyboard.

  2. Find it in the Inbox

    The new task waits in the Inbox, the place for anything you have not decided about yet. Tap Inbox at the top of the Matrix tab to open it. Here the task is at the bottom of a list of four.

    The Inbox sheet with four tasks, each marked inbox: Birthday gift for Sara, Look into index funds, Fix the squeaky door and Plan the Lisbon trip.

  3. Open the task

    Tap the task to open its sheet. The Quadrant card offers four choices: Q1 Do (urgent and important), Q2 Schedule (important, not urgent), Q3 Delegate (urgent, not important) and Q4 Someday (neither, so question it).

    Below the quadrants, Life area says No area and Status says Inbox. A Time block card sits under those, and the next guide uses it.

    The Edit task sheet for Plan the Lisbon trip. The Quadrant card shows Q1 Do, Q2 Schedule, Q3 Delegate and Q4 Someday with none chosen. Life area reads No area, Status reads Inbox, and a Time block card is below.

  4. Choose a quadrant and a life area

    Ask the two questions. A trip worth planning well, with no deadline today, is important but not urgent, so tap Q2 Schedule. Then open the Life area drop-down and pick one, here Travel.

    Once the task is sorted, Status reads To do instead of Inbox.

    The same task sheet with Q2 Schedule highlighted in green, the life area Travel chosen and the status To do.

  5. See where it landed

    Close the sheet and open the Matrix tab. Tasks are listed by quadrant, Q1 Do first and Q2 Schedule under it, each with its count. The All areas drop-down narrows the list to one life area, and the switch beside it changes between this list and a compact view with one tile per quadrant.

    The Matrix tab in list view. Q1 Do lists Finish the quarterly report, Renew my passport and Call the dentist back, and Q2 Schedule begins below it. The tab bar shows Matrix, Calendar, Focus, Areas and More.