The Ivy Lee method: write tomorrow's six tasks tonight

You start the day with a list of twenty things and no real idea where to begin. So you begin with whatever is easiest, or loudest, and by the afternoon the job that mattered most hasn't moved.

The Ivy Lee method is one of the simplest answers to that. Every evening, write down the six most important things to do tomorrow, in order. The next day, work on the first until it's done, then the second, and so on. Whatever's left goes onto the next day's list. That's all of it, and it fits on a sticky note. Below is how it works, the story behind it (with an honest caveat), why such a short list helps, where it struggles, and how to keep your six in dypt.

The Ivy Lee method at a glance

• What it is: a daily routine for choosing and ordering your work the evening before.
• The rules: six tasks at most, ranked by importance, done one at a time in that order.
• The leftovers: anything unfinished moves to the next day's list of six.
• Who it helps: people who lose time deciding what to do next, or who start lots of things and finish few.
• The catch: six is a limit, not a target, and it only works if you choose honestly.

The story behind it

The story goes that in 1918 Charles M. Schwab, the head of Bethlehem Steel, asked a consultant called Ivy Lee how to make his managers more productive. Lee is said to have spent fifteen minutes with each of them, taught them this routine, and told Schwab to pay whatever he thought it was worth once he'd tried it. A few months later, Schwab is said to have sent him a cheque for $25,000.

It's a good story, and it's the reason the method has Lee's name, but treat the details with care. James Clear, who brought the method to a wide modern audience, says how hard it is to find an original source: the earliest written reference he could trace was from the 1960s, decades later. He takes the 1918 date from the historian Scott M. Cutlip; many retellings say 1905. (Schwab, by the way, is Charles M., the steel magnate, not Charles R., who founded the brokerage.)

The routine is worth trying on its own merits, whatever happened in Schwab's office.

How to do the Ivy Lee method

These steps follow James Clear's account, in plain words, with a practical note on re-ranking unfinished work:

1. At the end of each working day, write down the six most important things to do tomorrow. Not seven. If you have more, choose.
2. Put them in order of true importance. Number one is the job that would matter most if it were the only thing you got done.
3. Tomorrow, start with number one and work on it until it's finished. Don't touch number two until then.
4. Then move to number two, and so on down the list.
5. At the end of the day, move anything unfinished to tomorrow's list of six. Leftovers go to the top and new jobs fill the remaining places. When you rank tomorrow's list, a genuinely more important new job can go above them; just don't let the list grow past six.
6. Repeat every working day.

The evening timing matters. When you write the list at the end of a day, you know what happened, what's waiting and what tomorrow looks like. And in the morning, the decision is already made: you sit down and start on number one.

An example list

Here's a made-up list, written on Wednesday evening for Thursday:

1. Finish the quarterly report
2. Call the dentist
3. Reply to Sam about Friday
4. Book the car's MOT
5. Update the budget sheet
6. Clear the inbox

By Thursday evening, numbers one to four are done. The report took longer than planned, so five and six didn't get a turn. Thursday evening's list for Friday starts with them, and four new jobs fill the rest:

1. Update the budget sheet
2. Clear the inbox
3. Draft the agenda for Monday's planning meeting
4. Pay the plumber
5. Send Sam the photos
6. Renew the parking permit

If something new had mattered more than the budget sheet, say a client deadline brought forward to Friday, it would go to number one instead, and the list would still stop at six.

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Why such a short list helps

The method looks almost too simple, which is part of the point. Three things are doing the work:

• The limit forces a choice. With room for only six, you have to decide what matters and leave the rest on your longer list for another day. A long to-do list lets you avoid that decision.
• The order removes the "what now?" moment. When you finish a task, the order gives you a next one to go to. You decided it the evening before.
• One at a time keeps you on track. Working through one task until it's done gives you a simple rule for resisting the urge to switch.

Rolling leftovers over keeps the list honest too. If something has moved from list to list for a week, that's a sign: it's too big and needs breaking down, it's less important than you thought, or there's something about it you're avoiding.

Making it work in real life

Few days run exactly to plan, so a little flexibility helps.

• Size tasks so they can finish. "Write the quarterly report" may never be done in a day. "Draft the summary section" can be. If number one is huge, the rest of the list never gets a turn.
• Six is a maximum. On a day full of meetings, three might be your honest six. A shorter list you finish beats a full one you don't.
• Let real emergencies in. If something urgent truly can't wait, deal with it, then go back to where you were in your list rather than starting again from scratch.
• Keep a longer list somewhere else. Ivy Lee's six are chosen from everything you have to do. The rest still needs a home so it isn't forgotten.
• Choose with a method if choosing is the hard part. The Eisenhower matrix helps you separate urgent from important, and eat the frog suggests putting an important job you're avoiding at number one.

Strengths and limitations

Strength	Limitation	What to watch for
Very simple; nothing to set up	Rigid order can break on reactive days	Deal with emergencies, then return to your list
Decisions are made the evening before	Easy to skip the evening step	Make writing the list part of finishing work
The limit forces real priorities	Six may be too many or too few for your role	Treat six as a maximum, not a quota
One task at a time reduces scattering	Big tasks can block the rest of the list	Break large jobs into steps that can finish in a day
Rollovers show what you're avoiding	Tasks can roll over for days unnoticed	If it keeps rolling, break it down or drop it

Is the Ivy Lee method right for you?

It suits days you can plan the evening before, and people who lose time deciding what to do next. It's harder on days run by other people's requests. Ivy Lee is also one of several "short list" methods. Most important tasks (MITs) has you pick about three outcomes that would make the day count, and the 1-3-5 rule shapes a day around one big, three medium and five small jobs. Ivy Lee's difference is the strict order. If you can't decide which suits you, our comparison of MIT, Ivy Lee and 1-3-5 walks through which fits which kind of day.

Keeping your six in dypt

dypt doesn't enforce a limit of six; that part is up to you. But you can use subtasks, manual ordering and repeating tasks to keep the list in dypt.

• Make a task for tomorrow's list. Create a task such as "Friday's six" and add your six as subtasks. Open that task and drag its subtasks into order, so number one is at the top. Keep the longer list of everything else in your normal project tasks, where nothing gets lost.
• Make number one startable. If the top task is vague, nest its first few steps underneath it, or let AI task breakdown suggest them (AI actions depend on your plan's allowance). A clear first step makes it easier to start first thing.
• Roll leftovers over in one go. At the end of the day, use multiple selection to move unfinished tasks into tomorrow's list. Open that list, drag the leftovers to the top, then add new jobs underneath.
• Make the evening list a habit. Create a task called "Write tomorrow's six", give it a deadline at the end of your working day and set it to repeat on weekdays. Include deadlines in the repeat settings and leave deadline roll-forward on, so each new copy is due that day.
• Spot what keeps rolling. If the same task moves from list to list, give it a closer look: break it into smaller steps, add a priority or deadline that reflects how much it matters, or decide it doesn't belong on the list at all.

Write tomorrow's six tonight

Before you stop work today, take five minutes. Write down the six most important things for tomorrow and put them in order. Tomorrow, start with number one and don't touch number two until it's done. That's the whole method, and you can try it on paper or in your task list tonight.

If you'd like a place to keep your six and break the first one down, try it in dypt, free to start.

Further reading

• James Clear: The Ivy Lee method
  The best-known modern account of the method, including the story, the routine and the notes on its sources.

• Charles M. Schwab on Wikipedia
  Background on the steel magnate at the centre of the story.