Impact-Effort Matrix

Prioritize Your List with the Impact-Effort Matrix

Welcome to the Impact-Effort Matrix Tool! This simple diagram will help you organize your stuff, optimize your resources, and unlock productivity.

• Sort your to-do list so you know what to work on first
• Categorize brainstorm ideas to reveal what’s promising vs. what isn’t worth the effort
• Chart your goals on a quarterly, annual, or other basis to prioritize your team’s attention

How to Use the Impact-Effort Matrix

1. Add tasks onto the grid. Type them out (or copy/paste) into the text bar at the top of the page and click "Add task."
2. Drag and drop the items you add to the grid to score them on ↕ impact and ↔ effort. When you add tasks to the chart, they’ll appear in the center by default. Use your judgement to move them around. This gets easier as you add more of your stuff to the chart and you can compare which ones have more or less potential benefit and will be more or less difficult.
3. When you’re done adding your tasks, review the Categorized Task List for each quadrant.
   1. Quick Wins = Low Effort, High Impact
   2. Major Projects = High Effort, High Impact
   3. Fill-ins = Low Effort, Low Impact
   4. Time Wasters = High Effort, Low Impact
4. If anything doesn’t look right to you, you can keep dragging the items around the grid. The scores and Categorized Task List will update automatically. If you need to remove an item, find it in the Categorized Task List and click the "x" to delete it.
5. Need to step away and return to your prioritization later? The tasks you’ve added are automatically saved in your browser’s localStorage. No need to create an account or any hassle like that. The items you add to the matrix are only stored locally on your computer, not transmitted over the internet, so your privacy is always protected.
6. When you’re done planning, it’s time to take your list and get to work!

Benefits of Prioritizing with the Impact-Effort Matrix

The impact-effort matrix is a simple yet powerful tool for prioritization, work planning, resource allocation, and decision-making. By plotting along these two dimensions — impact and effort — you quickly reveal opportunities and hazards among your to-dos or ideas. There are plenty of other characteristics you could incorporate into your decision-making, but before long you’ll reach a point of diminishing returns.

For most purposes, evaluating tasks based on their impact and effort will give you the highest amount of prioritization impact with the least amount of effort. Everyone loves a quick win! 😄

Quick wins

Low effort, high impact items are your quick wins. When you’re done planning, it often makes sense to start your work here. Spending less time on something that produces high output is the essence of productivity. If you’re going to do any work at all, it ought to be the stuff that has the highest potential return on your time. It’s great if your use of the Impact-Effort Matrix reveals some quick wins, but don’t be surprised if most of your items end up in a different category — that’s life.

Major projects

Tasks in the major projects category are high impact and high effort. Like quick wins, major projects are very worthy of your time and attention. Just don’t expect to see the impact anytime soon. In fact, the items that fall under this category may need even more planning, like subtasks and delegation, to come to fruition. When your planning doesn’t uncover any major projects, though, it’s a sign your list may be in need of a little more ambition.

Fill-ins

For this third category of task, we’ve crossed the impact threshold: fill-ins are things that are low effort and low impact. The key here is not to get distracted by these such that they take time or resources away from higher-impact initiatives. It’s generally best to spend time and resources on your quick wins and major projects first, and then "fill in" gaps with these fill-ins as you knock off the first two categories.

Time Wasters

Time wasters will eat up resources and attention and yield little in the way of results. It’s best to decline to complete them if at all possible!

Frequently Asked Questions