In 1918, Charles Schwab — president of Bethlehem Steel, then one of the biggest companies in America — asked a productivity consultant named Ivy Lee for one method to get more done.
Lee said: give me 15 minutes with each of your executives. When Schwab asked what it would cost, Lee said: nothing, unless it works. "After three months, send me a check for whatever you feel it's worth."
Three months later, Schwab sent him $25,000 — about half a million in today's money.
Here's the entire method Lee taught, unchanged after 108 years:
1. At the END of each workday, write down the SIX most important things you need to do tomorrow. No more than six.
2. Order them by true importance. Be brutal about #1.
3. Tomorrow, start on #1. Work on it until it's finished. Only then move to #2.
4. Whatever doesn't get done moves to tomorrow's six.
5. Repeat every working day.
Why it works: it forces the two decisions procrastinators avoid — WHAT matters most and WHAT comes first — and it makes them the night before, when you're calm, instead of in the morning, when everything feels urgent.
You never start your day deciding. You start your day doing.
Copy-paste tonight:
"Tomorrow's six: 1___ 2___ 3___ 4___ 5___ 6___. I start with #1 and don't leave it until it's done."
Six lines tonight. That's the whole method. It was worth $25,000 in 1918 — it's free in this email.
Kevin | TodayIsTheDay
