Eisenhower Tasks

An Obsidian plugin that brings the Eisenhower Matrix to your vault — a proven prioritization framework that divides tasks into four quadrants by urgency and importance.

👉 https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/eisenhower-tasks

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Screenshot

Open Eisenhower Tasks from the ribbon or command palette to see the 2×2 grid.

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Features

4-Quadrant Matrix View

A full-width tab with a colour-coded 2×2 grid, labelled by urgency and importance. Each quadrant has a distinct header colour so you can orient instantly.

┌─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│  Do First               │  Delegate               │
│  Urgent & Important     │  Urgent & Non-Important  │
├─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│  Eliminate              │  Schedule               │
│  Non-Urgent &           │  Non-Urgent & Important  │
│  Non-Important          │                         │
└─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

Sections

Organise tasks inside each quadrant into named sections.

• Add a section via the input just below the quadrant header
• Rename inline — click the pencil icon, type, press Enter
• Delete — click the trash icon; tasks under the section migrate to Uncategorized automatically

Uncategorized is the built-in fallback section and cannot be renamed or deleted.

Adding Tasks

Type in the Add task… input at the bottom of each quadrant and press Enter or Add Task. New tasks land in Uncategorized — drag them to the right section from there.

Drag & Drop

Drag any task to a different section within the same quadrant, or across quadrants entirely. Drop zones highlight as you hover. Tasks carry their text and metadata with them.

With subtasks enabled, you can also drag a task onto another task to make it a child (see Subtasks below).

Subtasks

Enable Subtasks in settings to allow up to 3 levels of task hierarchy: parent → child → grandchild.

Creating subtasks:

• Drag a task onto another task → it becomes a child of that task (drop zone highlights with a dashed accent border)
• Drag a task onto the section background → moves it to that section as a top-level task (original behaviour)
• Invalid drops (would exceed max depth, or would create a cycle) show a red dashed border and are blocked

Archive behaviour with subtasks: A parent task only archives when it and all its subtasks are marked complete. Tasks stay visible (with a checked state) until the entire tree is done, then the whole tree archives together.

## Q1 — Do First

### Work

- [x] Prepare the quarterly report
  - [x] Gather Q3 data
    - [x] Export from analytics
  - [x] Write executive summary

Edge cases handled automatically:

• If a parent is checked and you drag its last child away (breaking the hierarchy), the parent archives immediately
• Moving a subtask moves its entire sub-tree with it
• Deleting a parent orphans its direct children back to the section as top-level tasks; grandchildren stay attached to their parents
• Dropping a task onto its own descendant is blocked (would create a cycle)

Completing Tasks

Check the checkbox next to a task. It is removed from the view and appended to Eisenhower Archive.md in your vault root under the correct quadrant and section heading.

## Q1 — Do First

### Work

- [x] Prepare the quarterly report

Fullscreen Quadrant

Click the maximize icon in any quadrant header to expand it to fill the full view. Click again (or the minimize icon) to return to the 2×2 layout.

Persistent Storage

All tasks and sections are saved in Obsidian's plugin data store and survive restarts, vault reloads, and theme changes.

Theme-Aware

Uses Obsidian CSS variables throughout — works with any light or dark community theme without any configuration.

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Settings

Open Settings → Eisenhower Tasks to configure:

Setting	Description
Auto-tag on move	When a task is dragged into a section, appends the section name as a tag (e.g. #work-projects) to the task text.
Personal & Work sections	Adds "Personal" and "Work" sections to every quadrant automatically.
Enable subtasks	Allows up to 3 levels of task hierarchy. Drag a task onto another task to nest it as a child. A parent only archives when it and all its subtasks are completed.

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Installation

Community Plugin Browser (once approved)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins
2. Disable Safe Mode if prompted
3. Click Browse, search for Eisenhower Tasks
4. Install and enable

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create folder <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/eisenhower-tasks/
3. Place the three files inside
4. Open Settings → Community plugins, reload the list, and enable Eisenhower Tasks

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Usage

Opening the View

• Click the grid icon in the left ribbon, or
• Run Open Eisenhower Tasks from the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Add task	Enter (while focused in the input)
Add section	Enter (while focused in section name input)
Confirm rename	Enter
Cancel rename	Escape

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Development

git clone https://github.com/bugrasitemkar/obsidian-eisenhower-tasks
cd obsidian-eisenhower-tasks
npm install
npm run dev       # watch mode — rebuilds main.js on save
npm run build     # production build
npm run lint      # ESLint check (must pass before commit)

Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/eisenhower-tasks/ and reload the plugin in Obsidian to test locally.

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Releasing

npm version patch   # or minor / major
git push && git push --tags

GitHub Actions builds and attaches release assets automatically on tag push.

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Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. Please run npm run lint before submitting and keep changes scoped — see CLAUDE.md for architecture notes.

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License

MIT © Bugra Sitemkar