Boost Productivity: Ivy Lee Method
What’s the Ivy Lee Method, you ask?
It’s a method that is used to produce more efficiency and productivity into your life.
It dates back to a man named Lee, a productivity consultant, who was hired, over 100 years ago, by a man named Charles M. Schwab, the president of the Bethelem Steel Corporation. He was hired to help him boost productivity in his workplace. The advice of this method was given to him for free, but it was SO effective that Schwab later wrote him a check for $25,000, which is equivalent to about $400,000 today { via }. Crazy, right?
The best part is that this method takes about 15 minutes at most!
I first heard about this method from The Skinny Confidential: Him & Her podcast, which, by the way, you NEED to listen to. They are all about efficiency and providing value, and we are so about this.
If you’re looking to optimize your workday, or your day in general, this method could be a game-changer. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it allows you to focus your attention on one task at a time.
You’re probably thinking, “OK, we get it! So, what the heck is this method???”
Every night before you go to bed, write down a list of six things (no MORE or LESS) you must get done the next day in the order of importance.
When you wake up, start with the first thing on your list and continue to check off what’s done until the list is completed.
Whatever isn’t done goes onto your list of six things for the next day, and so on.
The point of this method is to put your attention on ONE task at a time. I know, for me, it’s not always so easy to do that because I like to think of myself as a ‘multi-tasker’, which, by the way, none of us really are because that’s not really possible to put so much energy into multiple things at once. Let me just say that in order to do anything GREAT, it’s so much better to do just one thing at a time with a purpose. By using this method, you are setting yourself up for success and you are paying more attention to detail.
This method is incredibly useful for not only the reason of having a special ‘list’; but, by writing the most important tasks down the night before and checking them off one by one, you are reducing what’s referred to as “decision fatigue”, and you are prioritizing what needs to be done to what can wait.
Have you heard of this method and has it helped you? Let me know in the comments! :)
Love you,
Ash x
