Start Working in the Right Quadrant and Stay There

Stop Working in the Wrong Quadrant: A Practical Way to Use the Eisenhower Matrix  

In a recent member workshop, we asked a simple question: 

Are you spending most of your time on what’s urgent, or what’s important? 

It sounds straightforward. But when we pushed further, things got blurry. Because in Allied Health, everything can feel important. A team question. A client issue. A last minute change. And most of it feels urgent because you care about your team and your clients.  

So we introduced the Eisenhower Matrix. Not as theory, but as a way to see where your time is actually going and what to do about it. 

The problem: urgent vs important 

Here’s where most business owners get stuck. You don’t plan to spend your week reacting… but you do. 

You start Monday with good intentions, management and leadership times blocked out. A few priorities in mind rounded out with a list of calls and conversations to be had.  

Then reality hits. 

Messages. Interruptions. Clinical gaps. Decisions that “only you” can make. 

And suddenly, your week is full. But not necessarily moving you forward. 

So ask yourself: 

If you looked at last week, what percentage of your time was truly important work?
And how much of it was just responding to whatever came up? 

That gap matters more than most people realise. It’s often where burnout starts. 

The Eisenhower Matrix.  

The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple decision-making tool that maps your work across two axes: urgent (needs attention now) and important (drives long-term outcomes). This creates four quadrants that help you clearly see whether you’re reacting or leading. Tasks that are both urgent and important sit in one space, while those that are important but not urgent sit in another and that’s where real growth happens. By separating urgency from importance, you can make more intentional choices about where your time should go.

We kept it simple in the workshop, and that’s how it should stay. 

1. Urgent and important
   This is crisis modeand stress and pressure lie here. Problems that need immediate attention. 

Examples:  

• Staff issues that can’t wait.  

• Client complaints. 

• Last minute gaps in the schedule 

You can’t eliminate this work. But if it dominates your week, something upstream isn’t working. 

2. Important but not urgent
   This is where growth lives.

Examples: 

• Clarifying and executing your business plan  

• Developing your team, services, network  

• Hiring ahead of demand 

• Building systems, marketing and partnerships  

• Financial oversight 

Nothing here is screaming for attention, and that’s the trap. Because this is the work that we must do but it’s the easiest to delay.  

3. Urgent but not important
   This is the sneaky one,its where time simply disappears.  

Examples: 

• Interruptions 

• Questions your team could answer 

• Tasks that feel quick and easy to just “do yourself” 

It’s urgent. But it doesn’t require you and tends to highlight absent decision making frameworks, standard operating procedures, delegated trust and default thinking that the boss needs to be part of the fix. Consider this a structure problem not a time problem.  

4. Not urgent and not important
   The filler.Scrolling. Busywork. Low value admin. We all have some of this, especially when we’re tired or avoiding harder decisions. 

What we asked our members to do 

We didn’t stop at the explanation, we made it real. Each member looked at their director hours and broke them down into actual tasks across a typical week. Not what they intended to do, what they actually did. 

Then they allocated the time each tasks took into one of the four quadrants and that’s where things got interesting. Because many realised their director time was still heavily weighted toward: 

• Urgent and important 

• Urgent but not important 

Very little time sat in important but not urgent. 

Which explains why things can feel busy… but stuck. 

 Try this yourself  

If you do nothing else from this, do this exercise. 

Over the next week, keep a simple running list of your time on tasks per day. You don’t need anything fancy. 

Just track: 

• What you’re doing 

• Rough time spent 

• Then categorise it into a quadrant 

That’s it. At the end of each day, plot your time on tasks into the most appropriate quadrant, repeat for every day of the week that you work, including clinical work days. At the end of the week tally up your hours per quadrant, step back and notice the pattern across the quadrants.  

Then ask: 

Which quadrant did I spend the most time in? 
Is that aligned with where my business actually needs me? 

What’s it going to take for me to work on important not urgent tasks?  

Clarity here changes everything because you stope guessing (and justifying) and start seeing your work habits.  

 So how do you shift it? 

Awareness is useful, but change comes from action. 

Here are five practical shifts we see work time and time again. 

1. Protect important work before your week fills up

If it’s not in your calendar, it won’t happen.  

Block time each week for: 

• Business planning and execution  

• Reviewing performance and results  

• Thinking ahead  

• Team and service development 

And treat it like a commitment, not a nice to have. 

2. Reduce repeat urgency

Recurring problems aren’t random. 

Look for patterns: 

• The same team questions 

• The same scheduling gaps 

• The same operational issues 

Then ask: 

What system or clarity would stop this happening again? 

Fix the cause, not just the symptom. 

3. Re-allocatework thatdoesn’t need you 

A lot of “urgent” work actually belongs elsewhere. 

Pick one recurring task and ask: 

• Who could own this? 

• What would they need to do it confidently and well ? 

This isn’t just about saving time. It builds capability in your team. 

4. Get clearer on your role 

A lot of time leakage comes from blurred roles. You step in because it’s quicker and easier, but over time, that keeps you stuck in the day to day  

What is only my responsibility at the director level?  

Then compare that to how you’re actually spending your time. 

That gap is your opportunity. 

5. Make one shift, not ten

You don’t need to change everything. 

Pick one move this week: 

• Protect one block of leadership time 

• Delegate one task 

• Say no once 

Small, consistent shifts reshape your role and results.  

Why this matters more than you think 

This isn’t just about productivity. It’s about how your business strengthens. If most of your time sits in urgent work: 

• You stay reactive 

• Your team stays dependent 

• Growth slows 

But when you consistently invest time in what’s important (even when it’s not urgent yet): 

• Problems reduce 

• Your team steps up 

• You create capacity 

That’s the shift from working in the business to actually leading it. 

 A final question 

Before you move on with your day, pause for a moment. 

What quadrant are you about to step into next? 

And more importantly: 

Is that choice intentional, or just habit? 

If this has highlighted a gap, that’s a good thing. It means you can see it. And once you can see it, you can shift it. 

If you’re ready to get clearer on your time, your role, and how to move out of constant urgency, we can help you map that out. 

Ready to work in the right quadrant and stay there? Book a call with Nacre Consulting and let’s take the next step together.