Could more ‘not important, not urgent’ be helpful?
(just click on the pondering pic to enlarge if needed)
The ‘important/urgent’ grid (also sometimes known as the ‘4Ds’ or Eisenhower matrix after the former US President) is often recommended as a way to categorise our tasks and figure out what our priorities are… and I do think that it can be useful for some (in fact, it’s one of the options given in the workbooks for the monthly & seasonal Planning Club sessions - though always with the caveat that no tool will work for everyone).
Traditionally though, anything that was in the ‘not important / not urgent’ section of the grid was considered something that could be ignored (i.e. ‘ditched’, ‘deleted’ or ‘dropped’ depending on which ‘D’ you choose!) But is that actually best for us?
Do we need more ‘not important / not urgent’ in our lives?
This idea actually came from a 2025 episode of the ‘Happier with Gretchen Rubin’ podcast where she was talking to Stacey Abrams and Lori Gottlieb about relationships (as well as being a politician and voting rights activist, it turns out that Stacey Abrams has also written romantic suspense novels under the pen name of Selena Montgomery!) Towards the end of the ep, Gretchen asked them for a romance tip and Stacey suggests “at least once a week, make sure you and your partner are doing something that’s not important and not urgent - and if you don’t have a partner, do it for yourself”.
This quadrant of the grid is usually seen as one to ignore, so this was the first time that I’d considered it in this way - and I thought it was a great idea… continually focusing on things that are ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ can be stressful and sometimes we just need to give ourselves a break! I don’t think it’s just for relationships either, it can apply to life in general - one of the prompts in the weekly Planning Club sessions is to be more intentional about making sure we have some time for fun / rest / relaxation etc each week, so thinking about prioritising time for things that don’t really have a purpose could be one way of doing that.
What is the Eisenhower matrix?
If you haven’t come across this before, it’s a simple grid to help us prioritise the tasks we’ve got to do by considering how ‘important’ and ‘urgent’ they are…
It’s sometimes also called the ‘4Ds’ matrix as every section is often given its own verb (each starting with D - I have no idea why!) to suggest what we could do with those tasks, i.e. do, defer, delegate, ditch etc.
Maybe ‘delight’ rather than ‘ditch’?!
So, I’m just stealing other people’s ideas here… but when I introduced this idea to one of the Planning Club sessions this week, someone came up with the suggestion that instead of ‘ditching’ the tasks in that section of the grid, we could find ways to ‘delight’ in them instead (which actually fits in well with the tip that Lori Gottlieb gives in the podcast too). Planning Club is all about how we can use planning to help make life feel better - so making room for things that don’t have a purpose beyond our enjoyment of them sounds like it could be a useful idea (and perhaps, in fact, be very ‘important’!)
