How to Organize Your Tasks into Four Categories Using the Eisenhower Box: Urgent, Important, Not Urgent, (Do It)

We wake up to red dots on a phone, a blinking calendar, and a list that seems to multiply while we make coffee. The first minutes set a tone: we either let the day grab us by the collar, or we reach for a small tool that says, “This, not that—right now.” Today’s practice is that small tool. It is familiar in name, but different in execution when we do it with discipline. We are going to organize today’s work into four clear categories using the Eisenhower Box—then act.

At MetalHatsCats, we investigate and collect practical knowledge to help you. We share it for free, we educate, and we provide tools to apply it.

We picture a piece of paper split into four squares. In the upper left: Urgent and Important. Upper right: Important but Not Urgent. Lower left: Urgent but Not Important. Lower right: Not Urgent and Not Important. The words are simple. The trick is where we put the next email, the next idea, the request from a colleague, the chore that keeps drifting forward. We think we categorize once and move on. In practice, we learn to triage repeatedly, in small, precise sessions, and we set guardrails to keep our important work alive.

Background snapshot: The Eisenhower Matrix traces back to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s distinction between urgency and importance—popularized later by Stephen Covey and productivity writers. It’s been taught in thousands of workshops because it forces a binary: urgent or not, important or not. People trip on two points: they misclassify almost everything as urgent, and they stop at categorization without scheduling or actually doing the important non‑urgent work. The method fails when we create static boxes, not time blocks that protect decisions. It works when we cap urgent capacity, time‑box classification, and turn the top right quadrant—important/not urgent—into visible appointments.

We learned this in a Tuesday we can still feel: 9:12 a.m., four chat pings, one calendar “15‑minute” that slid 28 minutes, and a pull to check email. We pulled a sticky note, drew a quick four‑square, and promised ourselves 8 minutes to sort. The first surprise: three of the “must‑respond” messages were not important once we defined “important” as moving one weekly goal. That small reframing calmed the chest tightness and let us make the second move: we booked a 45‑minute block to build, before lunch. We didn’t clear everything. We chose something.

We are not here to perform theoretical prioritization. We are here to practice choosing what to do next and where to put the things we will not do now. The Eisenhower Box is a decision surface, not an artwork. We will fill it, trim it, and then work from it.

What we will do today:

• Identify 12–20 tasks that currently pull at us (emails count).
• Sort them into the four quadrants in 8–12 minutes.
• Cap the Urgent/Important list at 3 items for today.
• Book at least one 25–50 minute block for Important/Not Urgent work.
• Move or decline at least one Urgent/Not Important item.
• Delete, archive, or park at least one Not Important item.

And then we will reflect briefly—2–3 sentences in the journal—on how it felt and what we would change tomorrow. Our behavior improves when we link choices to sensations, not just ideas.

Mini‑App Nudge: In Brali LifeOS, enable the “Matrix Minute” module. It pops a 60‑second nudge at 10:30 and 14:30: “One move: Promote one Q2 task to the calendar, or demote one Q3 to a delegate queue.”

We will think out loud as we go, because good practice is a string of tiny decisions, not a polished plan.

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We open our inbox and face 37 unread messages. There’s the subject line from a manager with “URGENT” in all caps. There’s a billing reminder. There’s a newsletter we subscribed to last September and never read. On our desk, there’s a handwritten list with 11 items: “Finish proposal draft,” “Schedule dentist,” “Buy 2 × 500 g coffee beans,” “Fix deck typo,” “Plan Q4 training,” “Call Mom,” “Expense receipts,” and some items that barely have verbs: “strategy?” and “website.” We don’t need to solve all of it in one sweep. The Eisenhower Box invites us to decide what belongs where—for today.

We start by writing four headers on a page or tapping them in Brali:

• Quadrant 1: Urgent + Important (Do)
• Quadrant 2: Important + Not Urgent (Schedule)
• Quadrant 3: Urgent + Not Important (Delegate/Deflect)
• Quadrant 4: Not Urgent + Not Important (Delete/Park)

We are going to time‑box this move. If we give classification unlimited time, we turn it into avoidance. Set a timer for 10 minutes. In Brali LifeOS, the matrix screen has a timer tile; ours reads 00:10:00. We press start.

The first object: “Finish proposal draft.” Deadline is today at 16:00. It directly affects revenue and our relationship with a client. Urgent and Important. It goes to Quadrant 1. We mark it “Q1‑01.”

Second: “Plan Q4 training.” There’s no deadline today, but it is the kind of work that moves our capability forward. Important, not urgent—Quadrant 2, “Q2‑01.”

Third: “Fix deck typo.” There is a demo at 11:30, and the typo is on slide 3. It is urgent and important because it affects today’s credibility. Quadrant 1.

Fourth: “Call Mom.” It’s not business, but it is important for our life. Is it urgent? If we promised to call today, maybe. If not, it’s important and not urgent—Quadrant 2—and we schedule it.

Fifth: Billing reminder (“Invoice #2743 overdue by 7 days”). There may be fees if not handled. It is urgent and important enough—Quadrant 1. But we might downgrade if it requires only a 2‑minute click; still, today it stays Q1.

Sixth: “Schedule dentist.” Important health maintenance, not urgent if no pain—Quadrant 2.

Seventh: Newsletter. It is neither urgent nor important to our goals—Quadrant 4. We unsubscribe (45 seconds) and delete. That action alone prevents future noise.

Eighth: “Urgent: feedback on draft for Jamie.” Is this our project or a favor? Important for a colleague, perhaps not important for our main goal today. Still urgent to them. We place it in Quadrant 3, with a note to acknowledge and schedule feedback later or offer a quick scan for obvious errors if under 10 minutes.

Ninth: “Expense receipts.” Deadline is Friday. Today is Wednesday. Important but not urgent: Quadrant 2.

Tenth: “Buy 2 × 500 g coffee beans.” We can automate subscription; the need is not urgent—we have enough for two days. Quadrant 4 for now, or we convert to a 2‑minute action if we want the dopamine of a quick win. We check ourselves: Are we grabbing easy tasks to avoid the hard one? We put it in Quadrant 4 and set a Saturday errand time.

Eleventh: “strategy?” and “website.” This is where the matrix punishes vague items. If we cannot state a crisp next action in 6–10 words, we’re not ready to place it. We rephrase: “Draft 150‑word website About statement v1.” That moves it into Quadrant 2 (important, not urgent). For “strategy,” we decide the next action: “List 3 strategic options with 1 sentence each.” Also Quadrant 2.

Twelfth: “Fix office chair wobble.” Important for comfort and sustained work, not urgent—Quadrant 2—but easy to defer. We decide if 10 minutes with an Allen key means fewer back breaks later; we keep it Q2.

Our timer reads 07:22. We have categorized 12 items. We begin to see the surprising distribution: Q1 has 3–4 items; Q2 has 6; Q3 1; Q4 2. We resist the urge to drag more into Q1. This is the trade‑off. If everything is urgent, nothing is prioritized. We write one sentence in our journal: “Q2 is heavy; I need to protect a block.”

Now we make the second move that distinguishes practice from theory: we put time on the calendar for Q2. We book 45 minutes at 10:30 for “Proposal value props (core)”—actually a Q1 task; we book 50 minutes at 14:00 for “Q2: Website About v1 + Dentist call + Expense receipts start.” This is not random. Data we’ve collected on ourselves—28 days of logs—show we get our best sustained focus between 10:00–11:30 and 14:00–16:00, with another small peak at 20:30–21:15. If we book Q2 into those windows, we complete 40–60% more of it than if we leave it loose.

We also decide what to do with Quadrant 3. We send a quick message: “Jamie, I can do a 10‑minute skim before 12:00 for major issues; full feedback Friday. Does that help?” This move shrinks the urgent pull without dropping the relationship. We set a reminder for Friday 09:00 for the deeper read. Quadrant 3 is not trivial; it contains social and operational pressures. The difference is that we consciously limit it.

Quadrant 4 is the ratcheting gear that gets sticky. It includes frictionless time‑fillers—news, feed refreshes, cleaning a drawer. We remove two items from our environment to make Quadrant 4 less attractive: we close Twitter, we put the phone face down, and we log out of a shopping site. This is not moral grandstanding; it is environment design. We save ourselves from future willpower drains.

A small pivot we learned the hard way: We assumed deadlines were the only meaningful indicator of urgency → observed that deadline‑driven days produced constant firefighting and near‑zero progress on meaningful projects → changed to a two‑channel rule: the “urgent lane” gets a hard cap of 90 minutes/day (e.g., 3 × 30‑minute blocks), and everything else competes for Q2 slots by value. The cap forces triage. When we tried no cap, we spent 210–280 minutes daily in urgent maintenance and arrived at Wednesday evenings depleted and annoyed. With the cap, we still meet deadlines, and we preserve one deep‑work block.

We measure, even if roughly, because numbers protect us against stories. If we spend 75–90 minutes on urgent tasks and 45–120 minutes on important/not‑urgent work, our weeks look different. The outcomes attach to counts: number of Q2 tasks completed per week, not just hours logged. We track three numbers: tasks categorized per day (count), minutes spent in Q2 blocks (minutes), and the number of Q3 items delegated/declined (count). When we see Q2 minutes below 60 for three days in a row, we intervene.

Let’s walk a normal morning through, with realistic delays.

It’s 09:04. We sip coffee. We open Brali LifeOS, tap “Eisenhower Matrix.” There’s a little friction the first time, but the categories fit. We import 17 tasks from yesterday and two emails from this morning. We sort. A co‑worker pings “quick question?” We ignore it for 6 minutes; the world doesn’t crack. We drag “Fix deck typo” to Q1 and set its time estimate to 5 minutes. We see a new item “Reschedule 11:30 meeting?” and ask ourselves: Is this urgent because it’s soon, or because rescheduling has a cost to others? It’s urgent and mildly important. We decide to keep it at 11:30, do the typo fix at 09:10, and touch the proposal draft from 09:15–10:15. Trade‑offs are visible once the box is populated.

We do the typo fix—3 minutes to open, 1 minute to adjust, 1 minute to export. We tick it done. The small win releases tension and increases the chance we keep our focus for the harder task. We start the proposal draft. We commit to 60 minutes. We set the phone to Do Not Disturb. We feel the first itch at minute 11 to check chat. We don’t. At minute 28, a thought appears: “We forgot to book dentist.” We write a catch line on a paper pad: “Dentist—call at 14:55.” Our timer reads 00:32:15. This is the kind of micro‑scene that actually determines whether a tool becomes a habit; not the drawing of lines, but the everyday saving of a thought in the right place so we can keep going.

By 10:16, we have a workable draft. We move it from Q1 to “Done.” We breathe. We check chat; the “quick question?” resolved itself in the thread. Quadrant 3 didn’t pull us into 28 minutes of back‑and‑forth. We saved both time and the relationship by not reacting instantly.

A note on language: we are not robots. The Eisenhower Box can feel cold if we’re not careful. That’s why “Call Mom” lives on there with “Finish proposal.” We give importance to relationships, health, and rest. This practice is not just a work hack. It’s a life prioritization palette.

Common traps and what we do instead:

• We write vague tasks. We change them to actions that can be done in 15–50 minutes: “Draft 150‑word About,” not “Website.”
• We overfill Quadrant 1. We cap Q1 to 3 items/day. We make a “Q1 overflow” list for tomorrow so we don’t keep cramming.
• We let Quadrant 3 run the day via pings. We batch chat/email into two 25‑minute windows or three 15‑minute windows and tell people our response times.
• We park everything hard in Quadrant 2 and never schedule it. We place at least one Q2 block on the calendar daily.
• We use Quadrant 4 as a dumping ground without trimming. We delete one Q4 task per day and disable one notification.

After we list traps, we notice our breathing slowed. Declaring constraints doesn’t feel restrictive; it feels like permission to stop pretending we can do it all. If we did not limit Q1, for example, we would label everything “today” and then hate ourselves at 18:00. The limit pushes the real decision: which three urgent things get our attention, and which not.

If we work in a team, we add one layer: we make the Q1/Q2 boundary visible to at least one colleague. “My Q1 today: draft, demo prep, billing. Q2: training outline, expense setup, website.” This 20‑second broadcast reduces collisions; people see we’re not ignoring them, we’re allocating.

We extend the practice to a whole week. On Sunday evening or Monday morning, we do a 20–30 minute weekly scan. We place the largest Q2 items on the calendar—two or three 50–90 minute blocks between Tuesday and Thursday, preserving Monday for triage and Friday for wrap. Then each morning, we do the 8–12 minute sort we did today. This connects the horizon of a week with the reality of a morning.

We add numbers to the weekly view:

• Target: 200–300 minutes in Q2 across the week (minimum 4 blocks × 50 minutes).
• Cap: 450 minutes in Q1 (e.g., 90 minutes/day × 5 days).
• Delegate at least 3 Q3 items or redefine them (e.g., compress to a 10‑minute version).
• Delete at least 5 Q4 items.

We write these targets once in the Brali Journal and pin them to the top of the Eisenhower screen. Numbers invite adjustment. If we consistently hit only 120 minutes of Q2, we drop our Q3 commitments or set stronger boundaries. If we routinely exceed the Q1 cap, we ask whether our environment is truly reactive (e.g., on‑call duties) or whether we are reinforcing a habit of being interruptible.

Misconceptions that keep this hack from working:

• “Urgent equals important.” No. Urgency is time pressure. Importance is value. A 10:00 ping about a typo is urgent; designing the service so typos are less likely is important. We need both; they compete on different axes.
• “I must categorize everything.” No. We only categorize what competes for attention today and this week. A list of 200 backlogged ideas does not need to live in the matrix. The matrix is not a warehouse; it’s a decision board.
• “Quadrant 4 means ‘worthless.’” Not always. It often holds rest, play, and maintenance. The trick is to plan rest deliberately (Q2), so Q4 doesn’t become numbing scrolling.
• “Quadrant 3 is rude to people.” Setting response windows and boundaries is not disrespect; it’s predictable. Plus, we can move an item from Q3 to Q1 if it genuinely resolves a block for someone and aligns with our goals.

Edge cases:

• If we are on a true support/on‑call role, Q1 may be the majority. We still benefit by defining a lower‑noise Q2 block—perhaps 25 minutes with a pager handoff—just twice a week. It keeps skills moving.
• If we live with ADHD traits, the boxes can be friction‑heavy. We shrink the time horizon: 5‑minute micro‑sorts and 15‑minute “Q2 sparks” to get started. We use bright cues (colored labels) and audible timers. We reward the behavior: after a Q2 block, a 10–15 minute Q4 break by design.
• If our day is dominated by caregiving, we expect Q1 to be fluid. We make the practice smaller: one Q2 step daily, 15 minutes, even if at 20:30. Something like “Prep tomorrow’s breakfast bowls (10 minutes).”
• If we are a founder or solo operator, everything can feel important. We enforce a weekly “importance definition”: no item is important unless it moves one of three active goals (revenue target, product milestone, key relationship). This cuts the Q1/Q2 pool by 30–40%.

There is a risk in all this: we can turn the matrix into meta‑work. The cure is to close the loop quickly. Sort → schedule → execute the top one Q1 thing now. That sequence takes 10–15 minutes to start a day. If 25 minutes pass and we are still moving items around, we stop, pick the first Q1, and do it for 10 minutes. Action breaks the classification trance.

We also watch for the opposite: under‑modeling. If we never reflect, we repeat the same mistakes. We use the Brali check‑ins for feedback loops. Daily, we answer three quick questions; weekly, three more. We log two numbers. These numbers are our little truth serum; they keep us honest when we tell ourselves “today was just unusual” five days in a row.

We can go deeper on scoring if we like. A 3‑point rubric for importance (0–2)
and urgency (0–2) gives nuance:

• Importance: 2 = moves a core goal or prevents a significant loss; 1 = contributes to growth/health/relationship; 0 = marginal.
• Urgency: 2 = must happen today/within 24 hours; 1 = within 7 days; 0 = no time pressure.

But we keep it light. A fast gut‑score done in 2–3 seconds per item beats a perfect but rare system. We can revisit the score if the world changes at noon.

We model costs. Every yes has an implicit no. If we add a Q3 meeting today (30 minutes), what drops? Maybe we lose a Q2 block. If that happens three times this week, we will hit Friday with most important work undone. We keep a running tally of trade‑offs. It can be a simple Brali Journal line: “Said yes to 2 Q3s, moved 1 Q2 slot to Friday.” Quiet honesty saves us from fake productivity.

We also model energy. Q1 and Q3 drain. Q2 can restore if it’s meaningful. We arrange them by energy curve:

• Early day: 60 minutes Q1 (deep technical or writing), then 10 minutes Q3 responses.
• Midday: 45 minutes Q2 (strategic, planning, creative), then lunch.
• Afternoon: 30 minutes Q1 (finishing and sending), 20 minutes Q3 (coordination), 50 minutes Q2 (development or learning).

If we have meetings, we cluster Q3 around them because the context is already fragmented.

A day in which the matrix did our actual work, not just our hopes:

• 08:55–09:07: 12‑minute sort (18 items).
• 09:07–10:12: Q1: Proposal draft (65 minutes).
• 10:12–10:17: Q1: Fix deck typo (5 minutes).
• 10:17–10:30: Q3: Chat/email batch (13 minutes).
• 10:30–11:20: Q2: Training outline v1 (50 minutes).
• 11:30–12:00: Meeting (kept).
• 12:45–13:05: Q3: Jamie quick skim (20 minutes).
• 14:00–14:50: Q2: Website About v1 + Dentist call (50 minutes total; 35 + 15).
• 15:00–15:20: Q3: Admin (20 minutes).
• 15:30–16:00: Q1: Billing (30 minutes).
• 16:15–16:45: Buffer/rest (30 minutes). Total Q2 minutes: 150. Total Q1 minutes: 100. Total Q3 minutes: 53. That’s a day with movement.

Sample Day Tally:

• Items categorized: 18 in 12 minutes.
• Quadrant totals after sorting: Q1 = 4; Q2 = 7; Q3 = 4; Q4 = 3.
• Executed: Q1 tasks completed = 3 (100 minutes); Q2 blocks = 3 (150 minutes); Q3 batches = 3 (53 minutes).
• Deleted/unsubscribed Q4: 2 items (newsletter, auto‑renew ad). Totals: 18 items processed; 303 focused minutes across Q1–Q3; 2 distractions removed.

How this habit rides along with life constraints:

• With kids or unpredictable mornings, we move the sort to 12:15 or 20:30. A 7‑minute evening sort can set up tomorrow with one Q2 appointment.
• With travel days, we plan Q2 on the plane/train. We prepare a 30–45 minute offline Q2 task: an outline, a reading, a sketch. Quadrant 3 shrinks naturally in transit; we capitalize on it.
• In crunch weeks, we reduce the matrix to only two quadrants for 48 hours: Q1 and Q2. Q3 becomes a single daily 20‑minute batch. Q4 is basically off. We accept this is not sustainable beyond two days. Then we reset.

We keep the practice humane. It’s okay to miss a day. We restart with one quadrant: just list the three most important non‑urgent tasks and schedule one. The rest can catch up tomorrow.

How to delegate Quadrant 3 without friction:

• We create a “Delegate” list with names. “Jamie—full feedback Friday, 45 minutes.” “IT—set up 2FA for finance by Thursday.” “VA—collect receipts monthly, 30 minutes.”
• We write a 2‑sentence brief for each delegated item: what “done” looks like, by when.
• We add a 2‑minute check at the end of the day: is anything stuck? If yes, we nudge once. Delegation without context is abdication. Delegation with context is multiplication.

We also learn to decline. The sentence “My plate is full today; I can do 10 minutes now or 45 minutes Friday—what’s better?” moves requests back into a choice for the other person. Often they pick Friday or solve it themselves. We preserve Q2 without harming trust.

A note on tools. We can draw the matrix on paper; we can use sticky notes; we can use an app. The tool matters less than the behavior. That said, Brali LifeOS keeps the steps one tap apart: task capture, quadrant assignment, quick timer, calendar block, journal note, and check‑ins. We designed it so the friction is low enough at 09:03 on a Tuesday.

What about big projects that don’t fit 50 minutes? We slice them by outcome chunks, not by time: “Proposal—write ‘Problem’ section draft (300 words),” “Training—outline 3 modules with 3 bullets each,” “Website—About v1 (150 words).” When the chunk is crisp, its quadrant becomes obvious. If we need more than two Q2 slots for the same project in a day, we consider whether that crowds out other important work.

Let’s surface trade‑offs with numbers:

• If we accept every Q3 meeting invite, we add 60–120 minutes/day of reactive work. Over a week, that’s 300–600 minutes, which could have been 3–6 Q2 blocks. The opportunity cost is an entire small project not done.
• If we do not delete Q4 clutter (feeds, low‑value chores), we spend 30–90 minutes/day in friction that feels like work but isn’t. Over a month, that’s 600–1,800 minutes (10–30 hours), enough to write a short report, rehearse a talk, or rest.

We can track just two metrics to start:

• “Tasks categorized today” (count).
• “Minutes in Q2 focus today” (minutes).

When the numbers slip below our minimums (e.g., <12 tasks categorized, <45 Q2 minutes), we examine one variable: Did we cap Q1? Usually not. The cap is the lever.

We also consider emotional signals. Frustration at 11:00 often means we have too many Q1 items; anxiety at 14:00 suggests a Q2 block is overdue; relief at 16:00 appears when we have one Q2 done. We note it. Emotion is data.

A small story of a pivot with data:

• We assumed batching email twice daily would be fine → observed a build‑up of Q3 that made the afternoon batch 45–60 minutes, plus a low‑grade anxiety in the morning → changed to three micro‑batches (09:50, 13:20, 16:30) of 12–15 minutes each. Result over 14 days: Q3 minutes/day decreased from 78 to 49 (−37%), and Q2 minutes increased by 31/day. Subjective calm improved; we wrote “felt lighter at noon” in 9/14 logs.

We apply the matrix within meetings. At the start, we take 30 seconds: “What is Q1 here?” If the meeting is a Q3 disguised as a Q1 (urgent and someone else’s priority), we ask for the efficient version: “What decision do you need from me?” If none, we leave after 10 minutes. That’s not arrogance; it’s boundary clarity.

What about creative work that resists quadrants? We define it as Q2 and protect space. Creativity needs slack. If we starve it, the week fills with reactive crumbs. We can also give it small edges: “Write 100 words toward chapter 2,” “Sketch 3 layouts, 2 minutes each,” “Record 1 audio memo idea.” Those can fit in 15 minutes and still be real.

Night routine link‑in: At 20:45, we do a 5‑minute “Tomorrow preview.” We open the matrix, peek at Q1 and Q2, and pre‑select a 25–50 minute Q2 for morning. This reduces morning indecision and the risk that Q3 steals our first hour.

On paper days, we do it analog. Four boxes on a page, 10 lines each. We write tasks with short verbs: fix, draft, call, book, send, review, outline, list, clean, organize. Verbs matter. They remove ambiguity.

On team days, we run a “matrix stand‑up” of 5 minutes: each person says one Q1 and one Q2 for today. That’s it. No status monologues. That aligns us without burning the morning.

We must also accept limits. We will not fit 14 hours of work into 8. The matrix doesn’t hack time; it sharpens choices. If we feel guilt at 17:30, we check whether we completed the one Q2 we planned. If yes, we allow ourselves to stop. Work is infinite; we are not.

Busy‑day alternative (≤5 minutes):

• Open Brali LifeOS, tap Matrix. Select 8 tasks max.
• Drag only 1 to Q1 and 1 to Q2. Book a 25‑minute Q2 slot within the next 6 hours. Set a 12‑minute timer and do the Q1 now. Done.

This small path keeps the habit alive when the day tries to sweep us away. Habits are easier to maintain than to restart.

We also take care of the machine running the matrix: our body. A 4‑minute stretch between blocks improves execution. A 250–350 ml glass of water before a Q2 block helps. Light measures help more than heavy plans.

We make the habit sticky by tying it to anchors. We place the sort right after coffee or just after arriving at the desk. We tap the daily check‑in right before lunch. We write the weekly check‑in Friday at 16:00. Anchors turn this from a practice into a routine.

If we want to go one level further, we annotate tasks with “why.” Example: “Draft proposal—so client sees value clearly.” That “so …” trick strengthens our sense of importance and makes Q2 feel less abstract.

If we work across time zones, we plan Q3 at overlap hours and reserve non‑overlap for Q2. If we must meet early, we place the Q2 block immediately after, not before, so we don’t get bumped.

We also use the matrix to decide what not to start. When a new tool appears tempting, we ask: “Important? Urgent?” If both are no, we let it pass. FOMO is Quadrant 4 with a nice logo.

We close with the core habits crystallized:

• Set a 10‑minute timer. Sort 12–20 tasks into four quadrants.
• Cap Q1 at 3 items. Book at least one Q2 block today (25–50 minutes).
• Batch Q3. Delete one Q4.
• Execute one Q1 immediately.
• Log two numbers. Reflect in two sentences.

At MetalHatsCats, we investigate and collect practical knowledge to help you. We share it for free, we educate, and we provide tools to apply it.

Check‑in Block

• Daily
  1. Did we complete at least one Q2 block (25–50 minutes) today? Yes/No.
  2. How many tasks did we categorize this morning? Enter a number.
  3. What pulled hardest on us emotionally—rush (Q1/Q3) or meaning (Q2)? One phrase.
• Weekly
  1. On how many days (0–7) did we protect a Q2 block?
  2. Did our Q3 minutes increase or decrease compared to last week? Up/Down/Same.
  3. Which single boundary helped most? One sentence.
• Metrics
  • Tasks categorized (count)
  • Minutes in Q2 focus (minutes)

Use the check‑ins in Brali LifeOS to spot patterns. If “Minutes in Q2” is <180 for the week, lower Q3 or reduce Q1 to ≤90 minutes/day for 3 days and reassess.

A final scene: It is 16:40. We tick the last Q1. We glance at Q2—one block done. There is a creature of habit wanting us to open email again. We pause. We write two lines in the journal: “Most helpful: capping Q1 to 3. Hardest: saying no to Jamie’s extra review. Tomorrow: start with training outline.” We feel a quiet lightness. We did not do everything. We did the right things.

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