Prioritisation method

Action Priority Matrix

By Mark D’Cruz, developed from his Applied Permaculture Diploma research and teaching practice

Compare impact and effort to organise action, while keeping duties, dependencies, uncertainty and affected interests outside the oversimplified grid.

Collection
Design Tools
Reading time
8 minutes
Last updated
18 August 2026

What the tool is

An Action Priority Matrix places candidate actions on two axes: expected impact and effort. It can expose quick wins, major projects, lower-value fill-ins and tasks to avoid, defer or redesign. The originator is not reliably established, so this page makes no invention attribution.

The method at a glance

High impact, lower effort

Quick wins: progress promptly after checking dependencies.

High impact, higher effort

Major projects: plan, resource and phase responsibly.

Lower impact, lower effort

Fill-ins: schedule only when they do not displace important work.

Lower impact, higher effort

Avoid, defer or redesign: unless duty or risk requires the work.

This accessible HTML diagram is a teaching aid. Its labels and explanatory text, rather than colour or position alone, carry the meaning.

Impact and effort matrix with four quadrants for quick wins, major projects, fill-ins and work to avoid, defer or redesign.
Mă-Kè Permaculture Academy teaching infographic using impact and effort to organise quick wins, major projects, fill-ins and work that needs reconsideration. Open the infographic at full size ↗

When to use it

Use the matrix after goals and candidate actions are clear, but before committing scarce time or money. It is best for a bounded portfolio of comparable actions, not for deciding whether to meet legal, safety or ethical obligations.

How to use it

  1. Define impact in relation to the stated purpose and affected interests.
  2. Define effort broadly, including money, labour, skill, risk, maintenance and opportunity cost.
  3. Estimate with ranges where knowledge is weak.
  4. Place actions provisionally, then discuss dependencies and sequencing.
  5. Separate mandatory work from discretionary prioritisation.
  6. Record the decision, owner and review trigger.

From Mark’s Diploma practice

Design 03 uses an Action Priority Matrix to organise whole-site tasks. The source shows specific actions placed by impact and effort. It demonstrates how Mark used the method at that stage of the project. It does not establish that every priority remained fixed or that placement alone justified implementation.

Limitations and cautions

  • Impact and effort are estimates, often with different units and time horizons.
  • Dependencies can make an apparent quick win impossible or irresponsible.
  • Small maintenance tasks may protect high-value systems despite appearing low impact.
  • Urgency, reversibility, equity and risk may need separate criteria.
  • Avoiding a task is not acceptable when the task is a duty or controls serious harm.

Authorship and provenance

Mark’s Design 03 provides a traceable application. The wider matrix has no securely verified single originator in the sources used here, so the Academy claims neither invention nor exclusive terminology.

Diploma source locators

  1. Design 03, printed page 22, PDF page 29: Action Priority Matrix with project tasks.

References

  1. MindTools, “The Action Priority Matrix”, method overview and origin caveat.