The Power Of Prioritization

How Scrum Masters Can Benefit From The Eisenhower Principle

Photo by Rostyslav Savchyn on Unsplash

As a Scrum Master, helping to set priorities is crucial to your role. You support the team to work on the user stories with the highest priority and ensure that everything moves forward as planned. However, defining which tasks to focus on can be challenging. That’s where the Eisenhower Principle comes in.

The Eisenhower Principle is a simple but powerful tool that can help to prioritize tasks by focusing on their urgency and importance. The principle was named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and a five-star general in the US Army. He famously said, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”

So, how does the Eisenhower Principle work? It involves categorizing tasks based on their urgency and importance:

1. Urgent and Important: These tasks must be done immediately, such as dealing with a critical production issue or resolving a high-priority customer complaint.
2. Important but Not Urgent: These are important but not time-sensitive tasks. They may include long-term planning, professional development, or improving team processes.
3. Urgent but Not Important: These tasks require immediate attention but are not…