Re: [Groff] oddity in pic : absolute positioning requires "move" first.

[Tadziu Hoffmann]

>>> It's not quite clear exactly what layout you seek

>> Is it not just a two-column, two-row, block of text?
>> Did you consider tbl(1) instead of pic?
>> Or even just plain .ta and use tabs.

Yes, why don't you just write a short custom macro for this?
Here's one that uses local motions (instead of tabs):

  .char \[box] \v'.2m'\D'p 0 -1m 1m 0 0 1m -1m 0'\h'1m'\v'-.2m'
  .de 4c
  .sp .5
  \\$1
  .sp .2
  \h'2m'\Z'\[box]  \\$2'\h'13m'\Z'\[box]  \\$3'
  .sp .2
  \h'2m'\Z'\[box]  \\$4'\h'13m'\Z'\[box]  \\$5'
  .sp .2
  ..
  .4c "Task priority:" \
    "important and urgent" \
    "important and not urgent" \
    "not important and urgent" \
    "not important and not urgent"

You have to adjust the separation of the two columns manually to
look pleasing with your selected font (but you would have to do
that with pic, too).  Or you could even automate this, similar
to what tbl-generated code would do.