Free Eisenhower Matrix Templates (PDF, Excel, Notion) — and When You've Outgrown Them

You don't need to buy anything to try the Eisenhower method — a pen and one sheet of paper genuinely work. Here's how to get or make a template in every popular format, and the honest point where templates stop being enough.

The 2-minute DIY template

Take a sheet of paper (or any notes app) and draw a big cross, splitting it into four boxes.
Label the columns Urgent and Not Urgent, the rows Important and Not Important.
Name the boxes: top-left Do First, top-right Schedule, bottom-left Delegate, bottom-right Eliminate.
Write each of your tasks into one box — two questions per task, no exceptions.

That's a complete Eisenhower Matrix. Sticky notes on a whiteboard work even better, since you can move tasks between quadrants as things change.

Free templates by format

Printable PDF / Word / PowerPoint: Smartsheet and eisenhowermatrix.com both offer free classic four-quadrant sheets — print a stack and use one per day.
Excel / Google Sheets: a 2×2 of merged cells with color fills is a five-minute build; free downloads exist if you'd rather not make one. Conditional formatting can color tasks by quadrant.
Notion: the official template gallery has several free, well-rated matrix boards — typically a database with an urgency and an importance property, viewed as a board. Works on Notion's free plan.

Where templates quietly fail

Every template shares the same weakness: it's a snapshot, and your week isn't.

No reminders. The PDF can't ping you the morning your Do First task is due.
No recurrence. Weekly chores and habits must be re-written every single time — so they stop being written.
Not where your tasks arrive. New tasks show up while you're in line for coffee; the printout is at home on the desk.
Erasing beats reviewing. By Thursday the sheet is a mess of crossed-out lines, and starting a fresh one feels like homework.

Templates are perfect for learning the method and for one-off triage sessions. If the matrix helps you — and for most people it does — the next problem is keeping it alive daily, and that's an app problem.

📱 The template that updates itself

Eisenhower Matrix: Task Tracker is the same four boxes, permanently in your pocket: add a task the moment it appears, drag it between quadrants as priorities shift, let reminders handle deadlines, and set daily/weekly/monthly recurrence once instead of rewriting chores forever. Completed tasks get struck through — no fresh sheet required. It's free to start, so you can keep your paper template for planning sessions and let the app run the day-to-day.

From template to app (2 minutes)

Download the app on iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Copy your current template's tasks in — quadrant by quadrant.
Add recurrence to everything you kept rewriting.
Recycle the printout. Your matrix now maintains itself.

Put your priorities on autopilot

Eisenhower Matrix: Task Tracker sorts your tasks into Do First, Schedule, Delegate, and Eliminate — with reminders and recurring tasks.