Agent skill

Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer

by neurofoo in neurofoo/agent-skills

Sorts a task list into the four Eisenhower quadrants (do, schedule, delegate, eliminate) with reasons, a time distribution check and first actions.

MITAuto-check passedProductivity & Automation

Install Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer

skills CLI
$ npx skills add neurofoo/agent-skills --skill eisenhower -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install neurofoo/agent-skills eisenhower --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/neurofoo/agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/eisenhower .claude/skills/eisenhower && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
eisenhower
GitHub stars
119
Token cost
~705 tokens
SKILL.md length
252 words
Files
4 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
22
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Sorts a task list into the four Eisenhower quadrants (do, schedule, delegate, eliminate) with reasons, a time distribution check and first actions.

  • Works in 3 steps: Do now: [Q1 task] → Schedule this week: [Q2 task with… → Delegate today: [Q3 task with handoff…
  • Prioritizing a long to-do list when everything feels urgent
  • SKILL.md covers Instructions and Guidelines
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Given a list of tasks, the agent asks for the role or area and the time horizon, then places each task in a quadrant: urgent and important to do now, important but not urgent to schedule, urgent but not important to delegate, and neither to eliminate. Each quadrant has its own table, such as why a task is urgent or important, when to do it, who can take it and how to stop doing it.

The output also compares your current time split with an ideal one, using 20-25% for do, 60-70% for schedule, 10-15% for delegate and under 5% for eliminate, then lists first actions. Guidelines define urgent as an external deadline or consequence and important as contributing to goals and values, warn that other people's urgency is not automatically yours, and note that neglected schedule tasks turn into fires. Two command files, eisenhower.md and prioritize.md, and an examples reference ship with it.

When your agent uses it

  • Prioritizing a long to-do list when everything feels urgent
  • Reviewing where your week's time actually goes
  • Choosing what to delegate or drop
  • Planning first actions for the day from a brain dump

Example prompts

  • “Sort this to-do list into Eisenhower quadrants: renew passport, fix login bug, answer inbox, plan Q3 roadmap.”
  • “Put my team's backlog through the Eisenhower matrix and tell me what to delegate.”
  • “Here is my brain dump for tomorrow, so give me the four quadrants and three first actions.”

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Do now: [Q1 task]
  2. Schedule this week: [Q2 task with specific time block]
  3. Delegate today: [Q3 task with handoff plan]

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0e7ac2a. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer loads about 705 tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.6k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 51 tokens; SKILL.md has 252 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~51
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~705
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~2.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from neurofoo/agent-skills at commit 0e7ac2a, republished under its MIT licence (© neurofoo). 252 words, ~705 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/eisenhower/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 3 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
eisenhower
description
Eisenhower Matrix prioritization categorizing tasks by urgency and importance into Do, Schedule, Delegate, Eliminate quadrants. Use for task prioritization, time management, or when overwhelmed.
user-invocable
true

Eisenhower Matrix Prioritization

Categorize tasks by urgency and importance to clarify what to do, schedule, delegate, or eliminate.

Instructions

Take the list of tasks provided and sort them into the four quadrants. Be honest about what's truly important (moves you toward goals) versus just urgent (feels pressing but may not matter).

Output Format

Context What role/area are we prioritizing for? What's the time horizon?

The Matrix

                    URGENT              NOT URGENT
              ┌─────────────────┬─────────────────┐
   IMPORTANT  │    Q1: DO       │   Q2: SCHEDULE  │
              │                 │                 │
              ├─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
NOT IMPORTANT │   Q3: DELEGATE  │   Q4: ELIMINATE │
              │                 │                 │
              └─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
Q1: DO (Urgent + Important)

Handle these immediately—real deadlines, crises, problems

TaskWhy Urgent?Why Important?Do By
[task][urgency][importance][when]
Q2: SCHEDULE (Not Urgent + Important)

Block time for these—they don't scream but they matter most

TaskWhy Important?Schedule ForTime Needed
[task][importance][when][duration]
Q3: DELEGATE (Urgent + Not Important)

Someone else can do these—or reduce their urgency

TaskWhy Urgent?Who Can Handle?Delegation Plan
[task][urgency][who][how]
Q4: ELIMINATE (Not Urgent + Not Important)

Stop doing these—or radically reduce time spent

TaskWhy Are You Doing This?Elimination Strategy
[task][reason][how to stop]

Time Distribution Analysis

Quadrant% of TimeIdeal %
Q1: DoX%20-25%
Q2: ScheduleX%60-70%
Q3: DelegateX%10-15%
Q4: EliminateX%<5%

First Actions

  1. Do now: [Q1 task]
  2. Schedule this week: [Q2 task with specific time block]
  3. Delegate today: [Q3 task with handoff plan]

Guidelines

  • "Urgent" = external deadline or consequence for delay
  • "Important" = contributes to goals, values, long-term success
  • Other people's urgency isn't automatically yours
  • Q2 tasks become Q1 if neglected—that's how fires start
  • Be honest: Q4 tasks often feel productive but aren't

$ARGUMENTS

© neurofoo, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (references) in eisenhower of neurofoo/agent-skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • commands/eisenhower.md
  • commands/prioritize.md
  • references/examples.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0e7ac2a

Compare with similar skills

Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer this skillneurofoo/agent-skills119—~705Automated safety check: PassMIT
Gog Tasksevolution-foundation/evo-nexus545—~4.1kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Triagejoa23/linear-cli144—~699Automated safety check: PassMIT
Task Backlog Managermp-web3/claude-starter-kit109—~1.2kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Roadmap Planningmanager-dot-dev/manager-skills114—~4.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Kanban Mdantopolskiy/kanban-md223—~4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer

What does Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer do?

Sorts a task list into the four Eisenhower quadrants (do, schedule, delegate, eliminate) with reasons, a time distribution check and first actions. Given a list of tasks, the agent asks for the role or area and the time horizon, then places each task in a quadrant: urgent and important to do now, important but not urgent to schedule, urgent but not important to delegate, and neither to eliminate. Each quadrant has its own table, such as why a task is urgent or important, when to do it, who can take it and how to stop doing it.

When should I use Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer?

Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer fits situations like: prioritizing a long to-do list when everything feels urgent; reviewing where your week's time actually goes; choosing what to delegate or drop; planning first actions for the day from a brain dump.

How do I install Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add neurofoo/agent-skills --skill eisenhower -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (eisenhower in neurofoo/agent-skills) into .claude/skills/eisenhower in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer in Codex?

Run `npx skills add neurofoo/agent-skills --skill eisenhower -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (eisenhower in neurofoo/agent-skills) into .agents/skills/eisenhower in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add neurofoo/agent-skills --skill eisenhower -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/eisenhower, .gemini/skills/eisenhower, .github/skills/eisenhower and .opencode/skills/eisenhower in your project.

What does Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer is instructions for the agent only.

Does Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer use?

Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer use?

About 705 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.9k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer: Gog Tasks (evolution-foundation/evo-nexus, 545 stars), Triage (joa23/linear-cli, 144 stars), Task Backlog Manager (mp-web3/claude-starter-kit, 109 stars) and Roadmap Planning (manager-dot-dev/manager-skills, 114 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Eisenhower Matrix Prioritizer?

neurofoo (a GitHub user) maintains it in neurofoo/agent-skills, which has 119 GitHub stars. The repository holds 22 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on January 19, 2026.

Source: neurofoo/agent-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.