⭐ #112: The Eisenhower Matrix: Important vs. Urgent
2-minute read: Climate, startups, productivity, leadership
Good morning, folks.
In today’s 2-minute read, we’ll cover these 4 nuggets below — as delightful as an iced Americano on a hot Southern summer afternoon.
Climate Startups & Investment:
#1 — 🚜 Stanford Ph.D. scaling carbon removal with olivine and agriculture
#2 — 💨 Carbon credits: Why buffer pools are critical
Productivity & Leadership:
#3 — 😬 Your homepage sucks. Here’s how to fix it.
#4 — ⏰ The Eisenhower Matrix: Important vs. Urgent
Onward and upward,
Chris
P.S. Want more? Read 100+ prior newsletter issues here.
#1 — 🚜 Stanford Ph.D. scaling carbon removal with olivine and agriculture
My recent guest was Dr. Adam Wolf, Founder and CEO of Eion.
Eion is an enhanced rock weathering startup that works with farmers to capture carbon from the air using a rock called olivine.
By 2026, they’ll be on track to permanently remove 500,000 tons of CO2 every year.
Recent venture capital investors include AgFunder, Trailhead Capital, and Orion Corporation.
#2 — 💨 Carbon credits: Why buffer pools are critical
We’ve all heard dramatic criticisms of carbon credits. 🤨
Some true. Some overly simplistic.
But one way to ensure their quality is by using buffer pools — i.e., not selling all carbon credits generated and verified, and instead holding them in reserve until/if bad stuff happens (e.g., the forest burns) when they can be released.
My friends at Kita recently published a report — “Buffers & Insurance in the Voluntary Carbon Market” — that drills down into how these work and how they interface with creative insurance products.
Below are five highlights from the report.
#3 — 😬 Your homepage sucks. Here’s how to fix it.
If you like Ted Lasso*, then you’ll remember this:
“Be like a goldfish.”
Why?
Because goldfish purportedly have a 3-second memory.
(This is actually wrong.)
The point was to not hold on to “bad and sad” things and let them go instead.
But the same logic applies — in a suboptimal way — to our business’s website home pages.
U.S. internet users visit over 130 web pages per day. (source)
It takes 0.05 seconds for website users to form an opinion of your website. (source)
Here’s an 18-slide “how to” deck from Anthony Pierri on designing a more effective home page to hook** prospective customers:
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* If you haven’t watched Ted Lasso, well, I’m sorry for your loss. I watch almost no TV but have watched its three seasons twice.
** Yes, “hook” was meant to be a bad pun relative to goldfish, but I can’t imagine fishing for them
#4 — ⏰ The Eisenhower Matrix: Important vs. Urgent.
As the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower was kind of a busy dude.
So to prioritize his daily to-do’s, he created this 2 x 2 matrix — summarized below.
As personal development nerds will recognize, it was later popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
The big questions that it asks are:
What should I…
Do first? — “Important AND Urgent”
Schedule for later? — “Important NOT Urgent”
Delegate? — “NOT Important BUT Urgent”
Delete? — “NOT Important NOT Urgent”
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
Cheers,
Chris
The #1 Climate CEO Peer Group Membership Community in North America
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(As evidenced by these photos, I’m a real human. Not an AI. 🤫 I promise.)
