Kemi Badenoch must stop wasting time
How the Conservatives can use the Eisenhower Matrix to improve their priorities
How much time do the Tories think they have?
Given Kemi Badenoch’s recent announcement — that there will be no major policy announcements from the opposition for two years — there seems to be a presumption that opposition is unencumbered by deadlines.
Modern politics may be one of the most difficult places to judge how you should use your time
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This may owe less to the realities of electoral politics and more to cognitive biases, several of which hinder our ability to manage time effectively and efficiently. Projection bias leads us to commit to large tasks during moments of optimism, mistakenly assuming that our current mood will persist. Similarly, optimism bias causes us to overestimate our efficiency, leading us to take on tasks that may be too challenging to handle alone. Bikeshedding refers to our tendency to spend excessive time on trivial tasks because they are easier to address than complex ones. Meanwhile, restraint bias makes us overestimate our self-control over impulsive behaviors and underestimate the likelihood of getting distracted while working through our to-do list. Then there’s decision fatigue, the decline in willpower and focus that occurs when we tackle a series of less important tasks before addressing the more significant one we’ve been avoiding.
Modern politics may be one of the most difficult places to judge how you should use your time; social media, the rolling news cycle, the electoral cycle and intra-party demands all add to the list of biases that can cause wrong moves. It’s important, then, to learn from those who were experts in the matter.
Very few people in politics — indeed, in history — have achieved as much as Dwight D. Eisenhower.
After starting his Army career in logistics, Eisenhower rose through the ranks due to his exceptional organizational skills. He ultimately became the head of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force), where he masterminded the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. In 1950, he was appointed Supreme Commander of NATO.
Eisenhower’s leadership abilities drew interest from both the Democratic and Republican parties, eager to have him as their candidate. After 37 years of military service he retired and chose to represent the Republican Party, with Richard Nixon as his running mate. As President Eisenhower’s skill in prioritizing enabled him to accomplish significant achievements, including ending the Korean War, initiating dialogue with Soviet leaders and launching NASA.
The Eisenhower Matrix enables leaders to make informed decisions about how to allocate their time and efforts
Eisenhower’s was a workload of historic proportions. To cope, he developed a method of task prioritisation that later became known as the Eisenhower Matrix. Understand the core principle is easy; in a speech after his terms as President, Eisenhower quoted J. Roscoe Miller, the 12th president of Northwestern University, who said, “What is important is rarely urgent and what is urgent is rarely important.”
The Eisenhower Matrix enables leaders to make informed decisions about how to allocate their time and efforts, and introduces two key elements often missing from other time management tools.
First, it encourages a distinction between what is urgent and what is important. Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, the matrix suggests they should be handled differently. Urgent tasks are time-sensitive and may be simpler — like replying to emails or filling out forms — but they often demand immediate attention and make us feel pressured to act quickly. We tend to focus on these tasks first, even though they may not lead to significant long-term results. In contrast, important tasks are more complex and aligned with our goals. Completing them advances our personal or professional life, but we often procrastinate because they require more effort, or we fear failure. Unfortunately, delaying these tasks can lead to decision fatigue — a decline in willpower and focus — because by the time we get to them, we have less energy and are more likely to make mistakes.
Second, the Eisenhower Matrix features a “delete” section. While most time management tools focus on getting everything done, the Eisenhower Matrix acknowledges that the most effective way to achieve goals is by eliminating unnecessary tasks. We may feel productive by completing everything on our list, but the matrix forces us to ask tough questions: Do I really need to do this? Does this task help me achieve my vision? Will it contribute to my long-term goals?
It is a tool that the Tory Party should probably start using. Let’s have a look what it might look like:
Urgent and Important: “Do”
These tasks demand immediate action and are essential for achieving objectives or meeting critical deadlines. Winning back the trust of the electorate, creating a platform for May’s local elections, avoiding being outflanked by Reform and outlining vote winning policies are all critical measures to ensuring the continued existence, and electoral relevance, of the party.
Important but Not Urgent: “Decide”
This category includes tasks that hold significance but do not require immediate attention. These are best scheduled for a later time. Planning for government reform, preparing for the next General Election and deciding priorities for a future government are important, but given we are six months into Labour’s five-year term, it is not vital they are done immediately.
Urgent but Not Important: “Delegate”
Tasks in this quadrant are urgent but lack importance. They often serve as distractions or interruptions and are ideal for delegation to others. The number of members Reform has is, in practical terms, a distraction; as shown by Corbyn’s Labour, the number of members does not translate to electoral success. But in terms of politics it is an important story, fitting into the narrative of Reform catching up with us.
Not Urgent and Not Important: “Delete”
This category consists of tasks that neither hold urgency nor importance. These are often time-wasters, such as excessive social media use, unproductive meetings, or trivial activities that contribute to “action addiction”. Nobody cares about sandwiches. If you get stuck talking about sandwiches, do not double down by continuing to talk about sandwiches. It is almost impossible to overstate how unimportant sandwiches are.
Times are tough for Tories; the money is tight, the media oxygen is thin and the opportunities to make an impact are few. In such arduous circumstances, we must choose wisely about where, when and how we deploy our resources. It is vitally important that we make the best use of our time; perhaps abandoning “the grid” and adopting the Eisenhower Matrix instead would result in a more precise use of it. After all, once you’ve wasted time, you soon find that now time doth waste you.
