Every list of tasks eventually becomes a list where everything is urgent. The usual Eisenhower matrix doesn’t help much, because you decide what is “urgent” by feel, sort once, and the boxes go stale by Wednesday. The Eisenhower Matrix & Delegation Planner adds what a plain four-box grid leaves out: urgency is worked out from each task’s due date, so tasks move into Do or Delegate on their own as deadlines get close — and every task you hand off becomes a per-person log with check-in dates that flags the follow-ups you’ve missed.
It is a priority matrix template built as a workbook you own: one .xlsx for Excel and LibreOffice, plus a one-click Google Sheets copy. A plain grid stops at task names in each box. This one keeps the boxes current, tracks the hand-offs and measures your Do hours against the hours you actually have.
An Eisenhower matrix where urgent is a date, not a feeling
You type each task once on the Tasks tab: the task, whether it’s important (High or Low), its due date, the hours it needs, and who owns it. You never type “urgent”. The workbook counts the days to the due date and calls a task urgent when it falls inside the urgency window you set on Setup — 3 days to start, changeable any time.
From importance and that computed urgency it places every task in its quadrant:
- Do — important and urgent. Yours, now.
- Schedule — important, not urgent yet. Book a time for it.
- Delegate — urgent, not important for you to do yourself. Hand it off with a check-in.
- Drop — neither. Let it go, or batch it.
The sample pins its own example date, so first clear the As-of date override on Setup. From then on urgency is measured against today’s date, and the matrix re-sorts every time you open it. A Schedule task whose deadline comes inside your window moves into Do; a Drop task moves into Delegate. Nothing to drag around and nothing to re-sort by hand.
The Matrix fills itself
The Matrix tab lays out the four boxes with 12 tasks per box, soonest due first. Owners and check-in dates show beside the delegated tasks, an up arrow (↑) marks each task whose deadline moved it into Do or Delegate during the last 7 days, and an exclamation mark (!) marks a passed check-in date or a hand-off nobody holds yet.
Above the boxes sits a capacity check: your own Do hours plus the Schedule hours you’ve booked this week, against the hours you have for task work — with a verdict of Over, Tight or Room. When the urgent pile is bigger than your week, it says so.
A delegation tracker with check-ins
An owner column alone doesn’t tell you who is behind. The Delegation Log turns every hand-off into a record per person:
- open tasks and hours held against what each person can take
- what’s due this week and what’s past due
- check-ins overdue, and the next check-in date
Below it, a follow-up list shows every open handed-off task in check-in order — anything with no check-in set comes first, then the soonest — so a delegated task doesn’t quietly disappear. The workbook flags overdue check-ins; it doesn’t send reminders, so you stay the one who follows up.
A weekly review of tasks moved in by their deadline
The Weekly Review lists the tasks that were moved in by their deadline in the last seven days — Schedule into Do, Drop into Delegate — alongside what you completed and what you let go, plus three short questions for your own notes. The Dashboard adds an everything-is-urgent check (the share of open tasks in Do against a limit you set) and a needs-your-attention list: past due, name an owner, set a check-in, pick a date.
What’s in the download
- The workbook — seven tabs with room for 150 tasks and a roster of 12, for Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets (one-click copy, no import).
- A 16-page Start Here guide — the method, choosing your urgency window, delegating with a check-in, reading the Delegation Log, your capacity and the 15-minute weekly review.
- A one-page printable matrix pad, in Letter and A4, for a desk or a meeting.
It opens on a fictional worked example — a team lead’s week with 36 sample tasks and a six-person team — so you can see every tab working before you clear it and type your own.
Want to see urgency worked out from due dates before you buy? Try the free Eisenhower matrix starter — one sheet that sorts a task list into the four boxes with a fixed 3-day window, before you step up to the delegation log, the capacity check and the weekly review.
Own it — don’t rent another task app
There’s no account, subscription or per-seat fee. It’s one file that works offline and keeps working, and your task list stays in a spreadsheet you can sort, filter and change.
