Master Productivity Using the Ivy Lee Method

“Cre­ate a def­i­nite plan for car­ry­ing out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.” - Napoleon Hill, Author Think and Grow Rich

As part of the month­ly Lead­er­ship Edu­ca­tion pro­gram we do, we most recent­ly taught a Plan­ning and Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty mod­ule, one of 18 we offer – either in per­son or via Zoom for lead­ers in mul­ti­ple locations.

Plan­ning and pre-plan­ning are two of leadership’s most fun­da­men­tal and under-uti­lized skills, so we start­ed with the basics by review­ing Chap­ter 17 in my book.

If you real­ly want to enjoy endur­ing suc­cess for your Work, Self and Life, you need to use the Mas­ter Plan tem­plate, and con­scious­ly think about how you decide how much ener­gy on each area to succeed.

When we got down to pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, I thought about the many con­ver­sa­tions I’ve had with lead­ers, and my own expe­ri­ences, and was remind­ed of a sto­ry from the great book Think and Grow Rich (first pub­lished in 1923) by Napoleon Hill. He talked about the bril­liant PR/​productivity con­sul­tant Ivy Lee, known as Mr. Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, who was once com­pen­sat­ed $25,000 — the equiv­a­lent of $400,000 today – by steel mag­nate Charles M. Schwab.

In 1918 Schwab, one of the rich­est men in the world, was con­stant­ly look­ing for an edge over his com­pe­ti­tion. So, he called Lee and asked him what he would do to increase the effi­cien­cy of his team.

Lee asked to spend just 15 min­utes with each of Schwab’s exec­u­tives. When Schwab asked how much it would cost him, Lee replied, ​“Noth­ing – unless it works. After three months, you can send me a cheque for what­ev­er you feel it’s worth to you.”

The Ivy Lee Method

As he met with each exec­u­tive, Lee explained his sim­ple method:

• At the end of each day, write down the six most impor­tant things to accom­plish the next day. And no more than six
• Pri­or­i­tize them in order of importance
• On arrival the next morn­ing, focus only on the first task. Work until it’s done then move on to the second
• Com­plete the list, work­ing in the same fash­ion. At the end of the day, move any unfin­ished items to the next day’s list
• Repeat every day.

After three months, Schwab was so pleased with the results that he pre­sent­ed Lee with a cheque for $25,000.

A Toad + Five

I’ve used Lee’s method ever since I heard about it with one mod­i­fi­ca­tion which I call Lick Your Toads (see Chap­ter 5 of my book). Make your #1 task the one you’re most like­ly to put off because you dread doing it, to free your mind and ener­gy for big­ger and bet­ter things. Don’t keep putting it off to the next day.

So, your list is a Toad + five.

The Chal­lenge

• What would hap­pen if every­one in your com­pa­ny made a good list of their six most impor­tant pri­or­i­ties and made sure they got done every day – ver­sus respond­ing to the world of email and text?
• If you are already doing this, you know the pow­er of it
• If you’re not, give your­self a nudge to start today and share this idea with your team.

Let me know what hap­pens – and if you’d like one of our team to teach you our mod­ule Plan­ning and Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, let us know.