Eisenhower’s stellar advice for how to make decisions
Dwight D. Eisenhower served as the US Army general and the 34th president of the United States. The author of "Art of Manliness," Brett McKay shares some insights of how the former president set his priorities when making decisions. The following is a transcript of the video.
Often times throughout a day, we end up focusing on tasks that seem important but they're just urgent.
General Eisenhower, he’s the guy that head up the D-Day invasion. Also the president of the United States. He was faced with just constant decisions throughout his military career and also as his career as president. He had this saying “We often confuse the urgent with the important, the important with the urgent.
From that, people have derived this thing called the Eisenhower decision Matrix which helps you figure out what is really really important and what's just merely urgent. So, there's this grid that you come up with, and there are some things that are important but not urgent, some things that are not important but urgent. The goal with this is to focus on what's important and not urgent. What are the tasks that are most important that will provide you the most return on investment?
Often times throughout a day, we end up focusing on tasks that seem important but they're just urgent. Emails to answer, phone calls to take, meetings that seem important but aren't important, they’re just meetings you don't get anything done out of it. So, instead of focusing on those not important but urgent tasks spend more time on the important stuff — the things you know it's going to advance a project forward, advance your life forward. As you do that you're going to find a lot more done in life.
Follow Tech Insider: On Facebook