Dwight Eisenhower was a productive person who is best remembered today as a military leader and two-term U.S. president. As president, Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, championed the interstate highway system, and authorized the creation of the space program while containing the spread of Communism across the world. Success in so many endeavors required Eisenhower to be a master of prioritizing tasks and making decisions. To optimize productivity, he employed a simple decision-making tool that has become known as the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. The tool helps users discern between the urgent and the important and is built on the idea that what is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.