The Ivy Lee Method

Overview

The Ivy Lee Method is a single-list prioritization routine attributed to public relations consultant Ivy Lee in the early 20th century. The widely repeated account describes Lee advising an executive to write down no more than six tasks for the following day, rank them by importance, and work through them in that order. The method's value lies in its constraints: a hard cap of six items forces a real decision about what matters, and a fixed sequence removes the need to renegotiate priorities during the day. It is a paper-and-pen method at heart, though any list tool works. Because it operates on tomorrow's list rather than today's, it separates planning from execution. You decide once, in a calm moment, and then simply follow the order. That separation is what makes it simple enough to sustain and decisive enough to be useful. It suits people whose main problem is not capturing tasks but choosing among them.

How it works

The mechanism has three parts: capture, rank, and execute in order. At the end of the workday, you write down the tasks you believe should happen tomorrow. The limit is six. If you have more than six candidates, you must cut or defer until only six remain. You then number them from most to least important, using a simple judgment: which item, if left undone, would matter most? The next day you start at number one and stay there until it is finished or genuinely blocked. Only then do you move to number two. Unfinished items are not carried forward automatically; they must compete again in the evening list. This daily re-ranking is the core discipline. It prevents a stale backlog from dictating your day and keeps the list tied to current priorities rather than to accumulated guilt. The method does not require estimating durations, tagging contexts, or building projects. It requires one decision about order and the willingness to respect that order.

Step-by-step

1. Choose a fixed time near the end of your workday, ideally after your last meeting, and treat it as a five-minute appointment.

2. Open a single list, on paper or in one digital note. Avoid scattering tomorrow's items across multiple tools.

3. Write down every task you think should happen tomorrow. Do not filter yet; just capture.

4. Reduce the list to a maximum of six items. Merge small related tasks into one line, defer low-value items, and delete anything that is not actually yours to do.

5. Rank the six items from one to six by importance, asking which unfinished item would cause the most consequence.

6. Stop planning. Do not schedule times, estimate hours, or add sub-steps unless a task is impossible to start without them.

7. The next day, begin with item one. Work on it until it is done or blocked. Resist the urge to sample item three because it feels easier.

8. If something urgent arrives, handle it, then return to the list rather than rebuilding it.

9. At day's end, note what was completed and what was not, then repeat the process for tomorrow.

When to use it

Use the Ivy Lee Method when your task list has become longer than your capacity and the act of choosing what to do next consumes more energy than the work itself. It fits individual contributors, managers, and students who control most of their own day and can protect a first block of focused time. It is especially useful on days with few scheduled meetings, because the method assumes you can work sequentially rather than in short fragments. It also works well as a reset after a period of backlog accumulation: the six-item cap and daily re-ranking quickly expose which commitments are real. The method is less suitable when your day is dominated by reactive work such as support queues, incident response, or same-day client requests, because a fixed sequence will be interrupted constantly. In those settings, use it for the one or two protected hours you do control, or pair it with a separate capture system for incoming requests. It is also a poor fit for long projects that need staged planning across weeks; use it for the next day, not the whole project.

Common pitfalls

The most common failure is treating six as a target rather than a ceiling. If you routinely finish all six by mid-morning, the list is too easy and should contain larger items. If you routinely finish one, the list is too ambitious; split items or reduce the count. A second pitfall is ranking by urgency instead of importance. Urgent items are often other people's priorities, and a list built purely on urgency becomes a reactive queue. A third pitfall is reordering during the day. The method's benefit comes from deciding once; if you reshuffle whenever a task becomes unpleasant, you lose the discipline and default to whatever feels comfortable. A fourth is carrying unfinished items forward without review. Items that survive several days unchanged usually need to be broken down, delegated, or dropped. Finally, do not let the list become a project plan. Adding due dates, dependencies, and sub-tasks turns a five-minute routine into a planning session and makes it likely you will skip it. Keep the list small, ordered, and disposable.

Combining with other methods

The Ivy Lee Method pairs naturally with a capture system such as Getting Things Done or a simple inbox. Use the capture system to collect everything, then use the six-item list to decide what actually gets done tomorrow. The two operate at different levels: capture is unlimited, commitment is limited. It also combines well with time blocking. After ranking the six items, assign the top one or two to a protected calendar block, leaving the rest as a sequence for the remaining time. This keeps the method's ordering while acknowledging that meetings exist. With the Eisenhower Matrix, you can use the matrix periodically to sort a large backlog into do, schedule, delegate, and delete, then feed only the do and schedule items into the daily six. With Pomodoro, use the ranked list to choose the task and the timer to govern attention within it. Avoid combining it with systems that require daily re-estimation of every task; the point is to spend five minutes deciding, not thirty minutes planning. Choose one companion method at most, and keep the evening routine short.

Frequently asked questions

Why exactly six items? The number is a constraint, not a rule of nature. Six is small enough to force real prioritization and large enough to cover a productive day for many people. If your work involves long, deep tasks, three or four may be more honest. If your tasks are short and administrative, six may be too few. Adjust the cap, but keep a cap.

What happens to tasks I did not finish? They do not automatically roll over. Each evening you rebuild the list from scratch, and unfinished items must earn a place again. This prevents a growing backlog from silently setting your agenda. If an item keeps reappearing without progress, treat that as a signal to break it down, delegate it, or delete it.

Does it work for teams? The method is designed for an individual's next day. Teams can adopt the same discipline in a short daily planning conversation, agreeing on a small ordered set of shared priorities, but the six-item limit should apply per person rather than to the whole team, or the list becomes a project plan.