A simple productivity method; the Ivy Lee method

Today there are lots and lots of ways, methods, and applications to improve your productivity. And with each new application that comes to the market, we see a new feature never seen before that promises to revolutionize your productivity. However, even in so many ways, methods, technology, usability, and everything else that exists, there is always one piece that seems to fail in all of them: ourselves.

And the main advantage of this method is that it is easy to start and maintain. Especially for those who have tried tools and methods, ended up not being able to keep the practice, but still want to try again with a simpler method, but which can be equally effective.

The secret of this method is to prioritize priorities in a focused and as simple as possible and consists of only six steps, listed and commented below:

1 – Define your life values ​​and life goals, both in the professional and personal areas.

Without goals and values, you won’t know where to go, what shortcuts you shouldn’t take, or whether you’re getting where you should be going. So take the time to define your values ​​and goals.

The values, so that you stay in line with them and don’t deviate. Of course, we all have our values ​​ingrained and we would hardly do anything out of line with these goals if we took the time to think about each task we do. However, in the rush of everyday life we ​​may end up taking actions that do not reflect these values. So, think about your values ​​and make a note of them, leaving them always visible or easily at hand for when you go through the next steps. It could be a sentence, it could be a few words, the important thing is that it reflects what you believe.

The goals, so you know where you’re going and also to build and keep your spirits up. Think here about the things you have and perhaps you should value more, as well as everything you want to achieve and by whom. We hardly fight each day just for ourselves, usually, there is a spouse, child, or any other family member who depends or at least could have a better life if we take bigger flights, and remembering that we do what we do for them, believe me, it’s an air fresh blowing the candles of our minds. In the professional field, try to think about where you can go, both in the near and distant future, and define these goals clearly and, if possible, with dates.

And you can compile those goals into a sentence like this:

I want to achieve (list your goals) to have a better quality of life for myself and for (list the people who love you)

2 – At the end of the day, set aside 15 minutes to write down the six most important tasks to be done the next day. And never write more than six tasks

Why only six? Well, it’s the method, but think about how many days you actually do more than six things in a day, not necessarily microtasks, but important tasks that really count as a job. So six is ​​a good number to not waste your time thinking more than these six tasks.

Remember here to give a quick assessment if these tasks do not deviate from your values ​​and goals.

3 – Organize the list by priority order

List these tasks by the most important. If you’re having trouble making this assessment, there are methods to help you set such a priority, such as the Eisenhower matrix, but be careful not to fit one method into the other and that will cause you to lose heart.

Always remember to do this at the end of the day, setting priorities for the next day, this will help reduce the doubt and fatigue of deciding these things the next day.

4 – Start with the first task

Just don’t make fun of what you decided the next day. Sometimes it can be tempting to skip to the second or third task because it feels easier or more rewarding, but you would just be fooling your own priorities.

5 – After completing, move on to the next one.

Again, the priorities that a smart person (yourself) set yesterday should probably be respected by a smart person (you again!).

6 – Repeat this process daily

If you couldn’t perform the six tasks for the day, don’t despair and relocate the missing tasks for the next day, placing them among the 6 tasks to be defined for the next day. Remember that a method is something to create order and help processes, not to martyr yourself and feel that you are not fulfilling everything you set out to do the day before. In fact, almost no one can and over time you will learn to better measure the time it takes for each task and better realign your expectations.

Hello everybody,

I like to write more articles but it feels like I found a good find a way; a workflow that would fit my needs and working methods to write articles. Something efficient and straightforward with one central point of management and that would allow to have full control of articles.

My thought about copy-writing are:

– To be efficient as possible (writing and publishing articles even with images shall be the only thing I shall focus on)

– Writing from one location

– pPblishing to multiple websites

– Having access to all my articles

– Ability to update articles and

Points I’m struggling with:

– Image management, having to manually upload images for each article. It’s also impossible to copy/paste images directly in an article without a paid plugin (again)

– Writing articles in software like Word, or Writer and then reviewing articles in WordPress is a waste of time and I end up by not being sure for an article, which is the final version of the article,

My question is fairly simple:
What is your workflow, the one you found that dramatically increased your productivity?

In my case, it’s not an issue of finding topics as I have quite a lot of ideas but the way I’m working is time consuming and I’m sure something I didn’t find in Google exists.

I would love to learn more about your working methods!

Thank you and have a nice day!