The Ivy Lee method
The Ivy Lee method is over a century old and still works: at the end of each day, write down the six most important things to do tomorrow, in order of priority. The next day, work straight down the list, one task at a time, and carry anything unfinished to the next day's six.
- In priority order
How the Ivy Lee method works
- 1At the end of the day, write down the six most important things to do tomorrow. No more than six.
- 2Put them in order of true priority, the most important first.
- 3Tomorrow, start at the top and stay on that one task until it is finished. Only then move to the second.
- 4Work down the list in order, and move anything unfinished to tomorrow's six.
Where the method comes from
The method traces back to 1918. Charles Schwab, then president of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, asked the consultant Ivy Lee to make his executives more effective. Lee spent about fifteen minutes with each of them explaining a single routine, and told Schwab to try it and pay whatever he thought it was worth. A few months later Schwab sent a cheque for 25,000 dollars, an enormous sum in 1918 and worth several hundred thousand today. What Lee taught was not a system or a tool. It was a way of deciding, the night before, what the next day is actually for.
Why it still works
Two things make the day start easier. First, the deciding is done the night before, so you are not choosing what to do with a fresh, easily-distracted morning brain. Second, the strict order forces single-tasking: you work the top item until it is done, instead of grazing across everything at once.
There is a quieter reason too. An unfinished task keeps a small claim on your attention, an open loop that pulls at you while you work on something else. Naming tomorrow's six and closing them one at a time turns a vague, all-at-once pressure into a short, ordered sequence with a clear end. You are not holding the list in your head; it is on paper, in order, waiting.
Six is a deliberate cap. If a task keeps sliding to the bottom day after day, that is information: it may not be a real priority, or it needs breaking down.
The mistakes that quietly break it
Most people who bounce off the Ivy Lee method make one of a few predictable mistakes.
- Choosing the six urgent things instead of the six important ones. Urgency is loud; the list is meant to protect what actually matters.
- Writing tasks too big to finish in one sitting. If the top item is really a project, the whole list stalls behind it. Break it into a real first step.
- Not honouring the order. The power is in finishing the first before touching the second; grazing across all six turns it back into an ordinary list.
- Padding past six. The cap is the point. A seventh task is a decision for tomorrow, not a slot to fill today.
- Reading leftovers as a problem rather than a signal. A task that slides three days running is telling you something: it is not a real priority, or it needs to be smaller.
When it fits, and when it does not
The Ivy Lee method fits best when the hard part of your day is deciding what to do first, or when reactive work (email, messages, small requests) tends to eat the hours before you reach anything important. Planning the night before and fixing the order answers both directly.
It fits less well on days you do not control. If your work is a stream of genuine interruptions, or a queue where the next task is whoever just called, a fixed morning list will be overtaken by lunchtime. Even then a lighter version helps: keep one or two must-do items for the gaps between the reactive work, rather than a full ordered six.
Ivy Lee, and its relatives
If six feels like the wrong number, the same instinct runs through a few related methods. The 1-3-5 rule sorts the day by size instead of a flat six. Eat the frog is the Ivy Lee list narrowed to its first line: do the hardest, most important thing first. The daily three is the smallest version, three items instead of six. They are variations on one idea: decide less in the moment, and protect the few things that matter from everything that merely asks.
Fewer than six?
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