Ivy Lee Method

What Is the Ivy Lee Method?

The Ivy Lee Method is one of the oldest and simplest productivity systems in existence. In 1918, productivity consultant Ivy Lee was hired by Charles Schwab, president of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, to improve the efficiency of his management team. Lee's advice was disarmingly simple: at the end of each workday, write down the six most important tasks for tomorrow, rank them in order of importance, and the next day, work through the list one task at a time. Don't move to task two until task one is finished.

The Rules

1. At the end of each day, write down the 6 most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. No more than six.
2. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
3. When you arrive the next day, concentrate only on the first task. Work until it is finished before moving to the second.
4. Approach the rest of your list the same way. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six for the next day.
5. Repeat this process every working day.

Why the Ivy Lee Method Works

• Radical simplicity: There is no app to learn, no system to maintain, no tags or contexts to manage. The constraint of six tasks forces you to identify what truly matters.
• Single-tasking: By working on one task at a time in strict order, you eliminate the constant context-switching that destroys productivity. Research consistently shows that multitasking reduces output quality and increases error rates.
• Decision reduction: You decide your priorities the night before, when you have perspective. The next morning, you don't waste willpower deciding what to work on — you just start.
• Built-in accountability: Unfinished tasks carry over, creating a visible record of what you didn't get to. Over time, this helps you become more realistic about what you can accomplish in a day.

The $25,000 Story

After Schwab's executives tried the method for three months, he was so impressed with the results that he wrote Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 — roughly $500,000 in today's dollars. Schwab later credited the method as one of the most profitable pieces of advice he ever received. The story has become legendary in productivity circles, and the method remains effective over a century later precisely because of its refusal to overcomplicate things.