The Golden Age of Quadrant Two: The Work You Had No Time For Now Gets Done
An error that sat open for half a year got fixed in one week. How AI frees time for Eisenhower Matrix quadrant two: the important work that is never urgent.
Many people say this is a sad era for computer science. Honestly, I think it is the opposite.
At work, one error happened almost 400 times and stayed open for about half a year. Everyone knew it existed, but it was not urgent, so it never made it into a plan. Then I built a tool that used AI to scan the logs. Within one week, I found the cause and fixed it.
The Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix, also called the four quadrants of time management, sorts work by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important?
Before, there was always too much work. The company needed profit, so you left some useful work for later. The payoff of that work shows only after a long time. This is quadrant 2: important but not urgent. That work often waited so long that nobody ever did it.
Now it is different
AI cuts the time that chores take. Quadrant 2 work finally fits.
At work, the half-year-old error is fixed. In my life, I reorganized more than 600 notes in one pass, and I finished several technical article series. I wanted to do these things for years, and I never had the time before.
This is why I think this is a relatively happy era. What Does AI Accelerate? records where the saved time went. Designing your own life is also quadrant 2 work, and it is the topic of Design Yourself as a System.
The best thing AI gave me was time for the important work that was never urgent.
Related: see where the saved time went, revisit The Industrial Revolution Again, or go back to the series overview: Will AI Take My Job?