Category 01 · 10 frameworks

Time Management & Prioritisation

Methods for deciding what matters most and protecting the time to do it.

Eisenhower Matrix

Dwight D. Eisenhower; popularised by Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) A two-by-two grid that sorts tasks by urgency and importance. Each quadrant has a default action: do, schedule, delegate or drop. 02

Getting Things Done (GTD)

David Allen (Getting Things Done) A workflow for capturing every commitment outside your head and turning it into clear next actions. It rests on five stages: capture, clarify, organise, reflect and engage. 03

Eat the Frog

Brian Tracy (Eat That Frog!) Tackle your most important and most resisted task first, before anything else in the day. Getting it done early removes the drag of avoiding it. 04

Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)

Vilfredo Pareto's observation on wealth distribution; generalised by Joseph Juran as the 'vital few and trivial many' A small share of inputs often drives a large share of results. The 80/20 split is a rule of thumb, not a fixed ratio. 05

Parkinson's Law

C. Northcote Parkinson (essay in The Economist, 1955) Work tends to expand to fill the time available for it. Setting tighter, deliberate time limits can make work more efficient. 06

Ivy Lee Method

Ivy Lee, productivity advice reportedly given to Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel in the early 20th century A daily routine of writing down six tasks for tomorrow in priority order and working through them one at a time. Unfinished tasks roll over to the next list. 07

Time Blocking

Widely used scheduling practice; strongly advocated by Cal Newport Assign every part of your working day to a specific task or type of work in your calendar. You plan the day in advance rather than reacting to whatever arrives. 08

1-3-5 Rule

Popularised by the careers site The Muse Plan each day around one big task, three medium tasks and five small tasks. The fixed shape forces realistic choices about capacity. 09

MoSCoW Prioritisation

Dai Clegg at Oracle; adopted in the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) Sort requirements or tasks into Must have, Should have, Could have and Won't have this time. It makes trade-offs explicit when time or resources are fixed. 10

Big Rocks

Stephen R. Covey (First Things First, with A. Roger Merrill and Rebecca R. Merrill) Schedule your most important commitments first, then fit smaller tasks around them. If small tasks fill the week first, the big ones never fit.

Not sure where to start?

Take the self-assessment and we'll point you to the frameworks that matter most for you right now.

Take the assessment