TL;DR: At the end of each day, write down the six most important things to do tomorrow. Rank them. Tomorrow, work on number one until it's done, then number two, and so on. Move anything unfinished to the next day's list. Repeat. It sounds too simple to work, which is mostly why it does.
The Ivy Lee method is the oldest productivity system most people use without knowing its name. It takes five minutes a day, needs no app, and fits on a scrap of paper. A hundred years on, it's still one of the best ways to get the important things done.
The story
The method is usually told like this. In 1918, Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel, one of the largest companies in America, wanted his managers to be more productive. He met with Ivy Lee, a well-known consultant, who said he needed fifteen minutes with each executive. Asked about his fee, Lee said Schwab could pay whatever he thought it was worth after three months.
Lee told each manager to do the following at the end of every working day:
- Write down the six most important things to do tomorrow.
- Rank them in order of importance.
- Tomorrow, work on the first task until it's finished before moving to the second.
- At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six for the following day.
- Repeat every working day.
Three months later, the story goes, Schwab sent Lee a cheque for $25,000, a fortune at the time.
How much of that is true is hard to say. The story has been retold so many times that the details are shaky. The method itself doesn't depend on the legend, though, and it holds up for good reasons.
Why it works
It forces a choice
Most of us have far more than six things we could do tomorrow. Limiting the list to six means deciding what matters most, and that decision is the valuable part. A list of twenty is a list of options. A list of six is a plan.
It's made the night before
You choose tomorrow's tasks when today is still fresh, and when you're not under the pressure of a new day. The morning starts with the first task already decided, so you skip the half hour of email-checking that often passes for "getting started".
It removes switching
Working on one thing until it's finished cuts out the cost of jumping between tasks. Every switch takes time to get back up to speed, and a day of switching feels busy without moving anything far. We looked at this in more detail in context switching is the enemy of productivity.
It's small enough to keep doing
There's no setup, no weekly maintenance, no categories. That's why people still use it. Complicated systems tend to get abandoned the first time life gets busy. Six lines on a piece of paper survive.
How to do it well
Make the tasks concrete
"Work on the website" isn't a task you can finish. "Write the copy for the pricing page" is. Each of the six should be specific enough that you know what done looks like. If your projects are too big to produce a clear next step, break them down first. My guide to breaking down a big project covers how.
Rank honestly
The top of the list should be the task that matters most, not the one you'd enjoy most. Often it's the one you've been avoiding. If you struggle with that, pair Ivy Lee with Eat the Frog: put the hardest important task first, every day.
Don't let small tasks crowd the list
Six items go fast if three of them are "reply to an email". Group small jobs into one item ("clear the email backlog") or deal with them in gaps between the big ones.
Expect to carry things over
Some days you'll finish two. That's fine. Carry the rest to the top of tomorrow's list and choose the remaining slots fresh. If you carry the same task for a week, it's either not important or too big. Drop it or break it down.
Adjusting the number
Six is a starting point. If you consistently finish all six by lunchtime, add more or make them bigger. If you rarely get past three, choose fewer. The point is a list you can usually finish. See how many tasks to plan per day for a way to calibrate it.
Ivy Lee in a to-do app
On paper, the method is perfect as it stands. In an app, you need two things:
- A way to separate tomorrow's six from your full list, so you're not looking at everything all day.
- A way to put those six in order.
In Tatask, that's the Today list. Star six tasks in the evening, wherever they sit in your project tree, and drag them into order. In the morning, open Today and start at the top. When a task is done, tick it off and move to the next.
The advantage over paper is that each starred task is still connected to its project. When you finish "Draft the pricing page copy", you can open the parent task and see what's next, which makes choosing tomorrow's six quicker.
A day with the Ivy Lee method
Here's what it looks like in practice for someone running a small online shop.
The evening before, they write:
- Write product descriptions for the three new mugs
- Reply to the wholesale enquiry
- Photograph the new stock
- Update the shipping prices on the website
- Order more packaging
- Draft Friday's newsletter
The next morning, they start with the descriptions and don't open email until they're done. By 11 the wholesale reply is sent. Photography takes longer than planned and fills the afternoon. At 5:30, items 4 to 6 are still open.
That evening, the new list starts with "Update the shipping prices", then "Order more packaging", then four fresh items. The newsletter moves to Thursday's list because it isn't due until Friday. Nothing about the unfinished items is a failure: the three most important things got done first.
Common objections
"My job is too reactive for this." If most of your day is responding to others, choose fewer tasks, maybe two or three, and do them first, before the reactive part starts. Even one important task done every morning adds up to a lot over a month.
"I don't know what's most important." That's useful to discover. If you can't rank six tasks, you may not be clear on your priorities, and that's a conversation worth having with yourself or your manager. A weekly review, where you look at all your projects together, helps a lot. See how to do a weekly review.
"It's too simple." Simplicity is the point. The method doesn't try to organise your whole life. It only makes sure each day starts with a clear, short plan.
Try it for a week
For the next five working days, before you finish work:
- Write down six things for tomorrow.
- Number them by importance.
- Tomorrow, start with number one and don't move on until it's done.
At the end of the week, look at what you got done compared with a normal week. Most people notice a difference on the first day, because the morning's first hour goes to their most important task.
If you'd like to compare Ivy Lee with other approaches, my planning method quiz takes two minutes, and the daily planning guide shows how the method fits into a wider routine.
Frequently asked questions
Why six tasks?
There's nothing magic about six. It's few enough to force you to choose and enough to fill a working day for most people. Start with six and adjust once you see how many you actually finish.
What if I don't finish all six?
Move the unfinished tasks to the top of tomorrow's list and choose the rest fresh. Not finishing is expected some days; the method is about working on the most important things first.
Can I use the Ivy Lee method with a to-do app?
Yes. You need a way to keep a short daily list separate from your full list and put it in order. A Today or My Day view is ideal.
Is the Ivy Lee story true?
Ivy Lee was a real public-relations pioneer and Charles Schwab ran Bethlehem Steel, but the details of the story, including the $25,000 cheque, come from later retellings and are hard to verify. The method stands up regardless.