The Ivy Lee Method Can Help Get Your To-Dos Done

[The Ivy Lee method] forces me to determine my prime priorities, and suppose actually about what I can and might’t do in a day.

How can we make selections, keep on monitor, and do what we have to? Enter a 100-year-old productiveness software referred to as the Ivy Lee methodology, which might help you beat resolution fatigue by streamlining your to-do checklist and lowering multitasking. It might need been created within the early 1900s, however could be simply as helpful at present that can assist you focus and do what you actually need to.

What’s the Ivy Lee methodology?

The Ivy Lee methodology was developed by Ivy Lee, a productiveness marketing consultant who was reportedly hired by Charles M. Schwab in 1918 to assist enhance effectivity at his firm, Bethlehem Metal Company. Lee got here up with this methodology to assist individuals each plan and do their work.

The strategy is as follows:

1. The night time earlier than work, write a listing of six (and solely six!) duties for the following day in precedence order.
2. Within the morning, begin working in your checklist so as, and provides every process your full consideration—no multitasking.
3. Solely transfer onto the following process when you’ve gotten completed the one earlier than.
4. On the finish of the day, in case you have duties nonetheless left, add them to the beginning of your checklist for tomorrow, and repeat.

How does this method work?

The Ivy Lee methodology is pretty easy, however it’s efficient for a number of causes. For starters, making a restricted checklist of to-dos forces you to be life like about what you possibly can accomplish. “Individuals will generally create to-do lists with 100 objects on there, however that is not a to-do checklist, it is a want checklist,” says Laura Vanderkam, creator of a number of time administration and productiveness books, together with Tranquility by Tuesday. Overestimating, she explains, simply means an extended checklist after which feeling dangerous about not finishing it.

This course of is helpful not only for what you placed on however for what you allow off. Figuring out your precedence duties “will cut back overwhelm as a result of it reveals you ways a lot of what you’ve gotten been worrying about is noise,” says Charlotte Rooney, anti-burnout mentor and coach at A Half Managed Thoughts.

I’ve personally been utilizing the Ivy Lee methodology for a few years and discover the list-making step actually troublesome. It forces me to determine my prime priorities, and suppose actually about what I can and might’t do in a day.

By planning forward, the Ivy Lee methodology additionally ensures you begin every day with a street map of duties, quite than ping-ponging from resolution to resolution within the second. Our capacity to make selections is sort of a automotive’s gas tank, says profession coach and marketing consultant Jess Wass, who makes a speciality of serving to individuals realign their profession with their life. “We begin the day with a full tank however because the day goes on with all the choices we make, our vitality ranges begin to drop. When it drops sufficient, we would have a tougher time making selections and we begin to really feel overwhelmed.”

“It’s a software that can assist you obtain your targets, not a regular you must stay as much as.” —Charlotte Rooney, anti-burnout mentor and coach, A Half Managed Thoughts

You may cut back resolution fatigue partly by means of habits—like having a go-to “work uniform” à la Steve Jobs, all the time having the identical factor for breakfast, or making an Ivy Lee checklist the night time earlier than. That method whenever you sit right down to work, you haven’t used up any decision-making fuel and as a substitute focus extra vitality on how you will do what must get performed.

Your streamlined Ivy Lee checklist means you’ll all the time know what you have to concentrate on even should you get pulled off monitor, too. (As a result of random emails or last-minute requests out of your boss will all the time come up.) “We’ve a second of pondering, What was I presupposed to be doing? And if you do not have a fast reply to that, we begin to panic internally,” says Wass. Whilst you may in any other case slip into productive procrastination—reaching for the simplest, however not essentially most vital factor—Ivy Lee means you’ve gotten a plan and technique to convey your consideration again.

Planning forward means you usually tend to make selections which favor longer-term, usually extra vital targets as a substitute of fast wins, provides Rooney. “Focussing on impression quite than ease of execution adjustments the order that you simply deal with issues in. Somewhat than knocking off the simple issues first, the Ivy Lee methodology tells us to start out with what’s vital and can make the most important distinction.”

Easy methods to use the Ivy Lee methodology to get sh*t performed

Whereas Ivy Lee advocated for six duties and all the time working so as, his 1918 workday seemingly contained fewer conferences and definitely no Zoom calls. That means that for a contemporary office—the place 37 percent of employee time is spent in conferences—some tweaks to this methodology are warranted.

For instance, you don’t have to power your self to checklist out six duties. For some individuals, particularly these with meeting-heavy jobs, six duties is likely to be too many, however you possibly can tweak it to work for contemporary schedules – perhaps three or 4 duties works higher for you.

Finishing duties so as is likely to be much less possible for some work schedules, too. “You is likely to be higher served by determining whenever you’ll do every merchandise in your checklist primarily based on how a lot time you’ve gotten out there,” says Vanderkam. This might imply doing decrease precedence however faster duties in between morning conferences and focusing in your longer, extra vital duties when you’ve gotten an even bigger break later within the day.

Don’t beat your self up should you haven’t managed to cross all six duties off your checklist or weaponize it to make you are feeling dangerous about your self. “It’s a software that can assist you obtain your targets, not a regular you must stay as much as,” says Rooney. Ivy Lee might set off perfectionist or overworking behaviors in some individuals, so don’t be afraid to set a tough boundary round when you find yourself ending work and make peace with generally having duties left over.

You may really feel like you’re doing much less to start out with, however you’re ending fewer duties as a result of they’re extra vital, difficult ones. “In case you’ve gotten used to working on adrenaline and dopamine from being very busy, reactive and short-term focussed, this type of shift can really feel uncomfortable at first,” says Rooney.

Don’t count on to be excellent at it immediately. “You’re studying a brand new system, so you’ll have to strive, check, overview, and regulate for a bit,” Rooney explains. She says you may over or underestimate how a lot you are able to do or really feel caught questioning the way to prioritize duties, however don’t let that put you off. “Strive what feels adequate, after which mirror on the finish of the day. Use the data to plan otherwise the following day and preserve tweaking till it really works for you.”

None of us can ever get all the things performed daily. However by pondering forward, Ivy Lee might help us concentrate on the duties that actually matter. It’s an previous methodology that also works at present to simplify the to-do checklist, cut back our have to make infinite selections, and hopefully, really feel a little bit bit higher about the best way we work. Handled as a framework that may be tweaked for contemporary life, selecting to strive it may very well be one resolution that helps cut back, quite than add to, your resolution fatigue.