Student Success Planner

By October, the syllabus honeymoon is over. Midterms are arriving from multiple directions, group projects are ramping up, and your to-do list grows exponentially. If you've ever sat down to study and spent the first twenty minutes just staring at everything you need to do, you're not alone. Thankfully, there's a tool that can help.

The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple decision-making framework that helps you figure out what deserves your attention right now. It divides your tasks into four categories based on two questions: Is this urgent? Is this important?

The insight here is that most of us spend October in the top-left box, reacting to whatever feels most urgent and consistently neglecting the top-right box, where the big progress happens. Reviewing notes every few days isn't urgent. But it's extremely important, and ignoring it is what creates the panic cramming later.

During midterm season, try pulling out your task list at the start of each week and sorting everything into these four categories. You'll likely find that your "urgent and important" list is shorter than it felt in your head, and that some things you've been dreading can wait.

• Urgent + Important: Do it now. (Exam tomorrow, paper due in two days.)
• Important, Not Urgent: Schedule it. (Starting a long-term project, reviewing lecture notes regularly.)
• Urgent, Not Important: Delegate or minimize it. (Responding to a group chat, certain emails.)
• Not Urgent, Not Important: Let it go. (Scrolling, procrastination tasks you dress up as productivity.)

Try It

1. Write down every task or responsibility on your mind right now.
2. Sort each one into one of the four Eisenhower quadrants.
3. Identify your top three "Important, Not Urgent" tasks — and schedule specific time for them this week.