Use This 100-Year-Old Productivity Technique to Get More Done
If you want to be more productive, you should go with someone who has below average productivity. Finance blogs constantly interview modern executives about their work habits, but it’s not all that inspiring; they always claim that meditation, not answering emails, is the key to success, which is really no use for the average person who doesn’t have the time or resources to meditate or the luxury of an assistant to open unanswered emails. For true inspiration, you can try looking back in time: Ivy Lee, the founder of modern public relations, came up with a productivity technique so good that it lived for 100 years and still bears his name. Here’s how to try it.
What is the Ivy Lee Method?
My dream in life is to do something so unique and amazing that my name will be attached to it for all eternity; but my shorter-term goals include simply completing basic tasks every day. Good old Ivy Lee somehow managed to do both. He came up with his method of increasing productivity to help big businesses in the 1920s do more. It’s all about creating manageable, prioritized to-do lists and sticking to them until they’re completed.
How do you use the Ivy Lee Method?
The method itself is simple. At the end of each work day, write down six tasks that you need to complete tomorrow. (If it’s Friday, write down what you need to do on Monday. Don’t forget that weekend breaks are important for productivity, too .) Don’t write down more than six. The goal here is to keep the list manageable and not infinite. Next, prioritize them. You can do this however you see fit, but consider using a method like the Eisenhower Matrix to figure out which tasks are the most timely and urgent.
The next day, it’s time to start making your list. Start with the first task in the morning and watch it all the way through before moving on to the second. Continue through the rest of your workday using your ability to do deep work by focusing on just one task or project at a time. When your day is over, move anything unfinished to your list for tomorrow and add new tasks to it until you reach six.
By rescheduling tasks, you ensure they get done, but knowing you have the ability to reschedule them at all will keep you from feeling overwhelmed. However, try to make the tasks as detailed as possible. Instead of writing “quarter review” as one bullet point, break it down into chunks. If collecting and analyzing data is a step toward writing a report, make it one task. If introducing it into a presentation is another matter, this is also one task.
You can do this in a planner , a digital note, or even a calendar, but the most important elements are keeping your tasks small, prioritizing them, and not abandoning them if they’re not completed. Be sure to prioritize new tasks that you carry over to the next day so that everything gets done.