In the world of productivity, we are often sold a myth. The myth is that to achieve more, we need more: more apps, more complex systems, more heroic, caffeine-fueled all-nighters. We chase elaborate digital workflows and color-coded calendars, believing that the perfect system will unlock a secret level of performance. But what if the opposite were true? What if the most profound productivity gains come not from adding complexity, but from embracing radical simplicity?
Heroic effort is brittle. It shatters under the pressure of a single bad night’s sleep, an unexpected crisis, or simple burnout. Sustainable success is built on a foundation of small, repeatable, low-friction habits. It’s about creating a system so simple that you can execute it even on your worst day. This is the core philosophy we champion at TheFocusedMethod.com, and no technique embodies it better than a century-old method born from a conversation between a steel magnate and one of the world’s first productivity consultants.
This is the story of the Ivy Lee Method, a deceptively simple technique for prioritizing your daily tasks that requires nothing more than a piece of paper and five minutes of your time. It’s a powerful antidote to the chaos of the modern workday, helping you replace overwhelming distraction with calm, focused action. Forget the complex apps for a moment. Let’s explore a system that has endured for over 100 years for one simple reason: it works.
The $25,000 Idea: The Origin of the Ivy Lee Method
The legend is a cornerstone of productivity lore. Around 1918, Charles M. Schwab was one of the richest men in the world. As the president of Bethlehem Steel, he was obsessed with efficiency and output. He summoned a highly-respected productivity consultant named Ivy Lee to his office and issued a challenge: show me a way to get more things done.
Schwab told Lee he was willing to pay anything for a good idea, as long as it worked. Lee, in turn, said he could give Schwab a method that would increase his company’s efficiency in just 15 minutes. He wouldn’t charge a fee upfront. Instead, he told Schwab to try the method for three months. After that, Schwab could send him a check for whatever he felt the idea was worth.
Ivy Lee then laid out his remarkably simple system. He didn’t unveil a complex flowchart or a new piece of technology. He handed Schwab a blank piece of paper and gave him six simple instructions. Three months later, Lee received a check in the mail from Charles M. Schwab for $25,000. In today’s money, that’s the equivalent of over $400,000. So, what was this multi-thousand-dollar piece of advice?
The Six Steps of the Ivy Lee Productivity Technique
The beauty of the Ivy Lee method explained is its sheer, unadorned simplicity. It is a ritual to be performed, not a system to be managed. Here are the steps, which you can adopt this very evening.
First: At the end of each workday, take a moment before you disconnect. On a blank sheet of paper or a simple notecard, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. And only six.
Second: Review that list of six items. Now, prioritize them in order of their true importance. Not what’s easiest, not what’s fastest, but what is most critical to moving your goals forward. Number them from 1 to 6.
Third: The next morning, when you arrive at your desk, look only at your list. Do not open your email. Do not check your notifications. Start immediately on task number one.
Fourth: Work on task number one, and only task number one, until it is complete. Give it your full, undivided attention. This is the principle of single-tasking in its purest form.
Fifth: Once you’ve completed the first task, move on to task number two. Approach it with the same singular focus. Continue down your list in this manner, completing one task before moving to the next.
Sixth: At the end of the day, you may have unfinished items. That’s okay. Any tasks that remain are simply transferred to your new list of six for the following day. Repeat this process every single working day.
That’s it. That is the entire method. There are no apps to download, no subscriptions to pay, no complex tutorials to watch. Its power lies not in its features, but in the psychological principles it masterfully employs.
Why This Simple Prioritization Method Works
The Ivy Lee Method feels almost too simple for our hyper-connected world, but its effectiveness is rooted in how it addresses the core bottlenecks of modern knowledge work. It systematically dismantles the barriers that keep us from doing our most important work.
First, it conquers decision fatigue. Throughout the day, we make hundreds of small decisions that deplete our mental energy. Deciding what to work on next is one of the most draining. By making this critical decision the night before, when the day’s context is fresh in your mind, you preserve your peak mental energy for the work itself. You wake up with a pre-made battle plan, ready for execution, not deliberation. For more on the cognitive costs of decision-making, you can review literature from organizations like the American Psychological Association.
Second, it forces ruthless prioritization. The constraint of choosing only six tasks is a feature, not a bug. It prevents you from creating an aspirational, and ultimately demoralizing, to-do list of 25 items. You are forced to confront the hard reality of your limited time and attention, making difficult choices about what truly matters. This act of culling the unimportant is one of the highest-leverage productivity activities you can perform.
Finally, it promotes deep, focused work. The modern workplace is an engine of distraction. The Ivy Lee Method is a shield against it. By mandating single-tasking—working on one item until completion—you create the conditions necessary for entering a state of flow. You stop switching contexts, a process that incurs a significant cognitive cost, and instead immerse yourself fully in the task at hand, producing higher quality work in less time.
