m.
For businessesSign inBuild for Free

A planning method

Ivy Lee Six

At the end of each day, write the six most important tasks for tomorrow, in order. Tomorrow, work down the list.

A black-and-white portrait of Ivy Lee, a man in a dark suit and high white collar
Ivy Leem.
Ivy Lee, photographed by Harris & Ewing (cropped). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
SIX TASKS123456
The Ivy Lee Six module as it prints, on the daily page. The dots are the page’s quarter-inch grid.

Ivy Lee

Ivy Lee (1877 to 1934) was one of the founders of modern public relations. The method carries his name because of a story about Charles M. Schwab, the head of Bethlehem Steel.

As it is usually told, around 1918 Schwab asked Lee how his managers could get more done. Lee gave them a few minutes of advice and asked to be paid whatever Schwab thought it was worth, and a few months later Schwab sent him a check for $25,000. No record from the time has been found, and the story reaches us through later retellings, so treat the details as legend. The method does not depend on them.

The method

It has five steps:

  • At the end of the day, write down the six most important things to do tomorrow. No more than six.
  • Number them in order of their real importance.
  • Tomorrow, start on number one and stay with it until it is done. Then move to number two.
  • At the end of the day, carry anything unfinished onto the next day's six.
  • Repeat every working day.

How the module works

Six numbered lines on the daily page, fixed at six however tall the page around them grows. The limit is the point: six makes you choose, and the order means you never have to decide what comes next.

Fill it in the evening before, on the next day's page, so the morning starts with number one.

Put it in your planner

Start your planner

Find Ivy Lee Six in the module drawer, under Planning. Free, and no account needed to try it.