Developers face constant prioritization challenges: production bugs demand immediate attention, feature requests pile up, technical debt accumulates, and context-switching destroys productivity. This Eisenhower Matrix template helps developers triage competing demands, protect the deep work time essential for quality code, and make strategic trade-offs visible to stakeholders.
Fix critical production bug causing data corruption
Production issues affecting users override all planned work—focus and resolve.
Resolve security vulnerability with high severity score
Security issues with active exploit potential cannot wait for next sprint.
Unblock team members waiting on your code review or merge
Blocking dependencies multiply cost per hour of delay—prioritize unblocking.
Complete sprint commitment item due for imminent demo
Sprint commitments affect team credibility and stakeholder trust.
Fix integration breaking continuous deployment pipeline
Broken pipelines block everyone—restore team velocity immediately.
Refactor complex legacy code before it becomes critical
Tech debt compounds—scheduled maintenance prevents emergency rewrites.
Write comprehensive tests for critical user flows
Test coverage prevents future urgent bugs from reaching production.
Research and prototype technology for upcoming project
Technical spikes reduce estimation uncertainty and implementation risk.
Document architecture decisions and system design
Documentation prevents knowledge loss and speeds onboarding.
Learn new framework or tool relevant to upcoming work
Skill development multiplies your effectiveness over time.
Answer non-blocking question in team chat
Batch responses to protect focus—let questions sit until designated time.
Attend meeting where technical input not required
Decline or delegate attendance for meetings without technical decisions.
Minor code cleanup not in critical path
Cosmetic improvements can wait—address when touching the code for other reasons.
Review non-urgent pull request from teammate
Batch code reviews into designated windows to protect deep work.
Update documentation for non-critical internal tools
Internal documentation can happen during low-energy periods.
Endlessly configuring editor themes and plugins
Tool customization is often procrastination—good enough is good enough.
Debating code style issues a linter should handle
Automate style enforcement—human judgment is wasted on formatting.
Premature optimization without measured bottleneck
Measure before optimizing—intuition about performance is often wrong.
Rewriting working code for stylistic preferences
Functional code that passes review doesn't need aesthetic rewrites.
Building side projects during committed sprint work
Personal projects have their time—don't let them sabotage commitments.
Save your progress and never lose track of your tasks
Tasks in this quadrant are highly important, and the deadline is right around the corner. It's like having a paper due tonight or a client's system suddenly going down. You have to drop everything else, get on it right now, and give it your full focus. This is your top priority.
This is the foundation for your long-term success. These are things that matter for your future but aren't urgent right now, like learning a new skill, exercising, or planning for next month. Because they're not urgent, they're easy to forget. What you need to do is put them on your schedule, set a fixed time for them, and stick to it.
These tasks may seem urgent, but they're not important to you. They're the kind that interrupt your flow, like unnecessary meetings or small favors others ask of you. The best approach is to let someone else handle them or deal with them quickly, and don't let them steal your valuable time.
Tasks in this quadrant are neither important nor urgent. They're purely a drain on your time and energy, like mindlessly scrolling on your phone. The best approach is simply not to do them, and save that time for the tasks in the Yellow quadrant.
"Thanks to 4todo, our hectic wedding schedule was perfectly organized."
"4todo was an indispensable helper on my long-distance hike."
"Helps me ignore the noise and focus on what moves my work forward."
Save this task list to your 4todo account and start prioritizing what matters most.
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