The 100-Year-Old Productivity Hack That Still Works

Read time: 4 minutes

Hey, welcome back.

Last week, we talked about how the world is f*cked but you'll be fine. You can read that (and all past issues, here).

Today I want to share something that changed how I work.

It's over 100 years old. It's embarrassingly simple. And it still works better than any app I've tried.

1918

Charles Schwab runs Bethlehem Steel. One of the largest companies in America.

He hires a productivity consultant named Ivy Lee. Lee makes an unusual offer: give me 15 minutes with each of your executives. Pay me whatever you think it's worth in three months.

Three months later, Schwab writes a check for $25,000.

In 1918.

That's $400,000 in today's money.

For a 15-minute conversation.

What Lee Told Them

At the end of each workday, write down the six most important tasks for tomorrow.

Not seven. Not ten. Six.

Rank them in order of true importance.

Tomorrow morning, start with task one. Work until it's complete.

Move to task two. Then three. One at a time, in order.

Unfinished tasks move to tomorrow's list.

Repeat daily.

That's it. That's what earned a $400,000 check.

Why It Works

I've used this method for two years. Here's what I've learned.

Six tasks forces prioritization. When you can write unlimited tasks, everything feels important. Nothing gets done. Six is manageable but ambitious. You have to choose.

Ranking them forces honesty. Most people work on whatever feels urgent or easy. Ranking makes you confront what actually matters. Task one should be the thing that, if completed alone, makes tomorrow successful.

One task at a time eliminates the multitasking lie. Task switching reduces productivity by 40%. Takes 23 minutes to regain focus after an interruption. One thing until complete is how real work gets done.

Planning the night before solves decision fatigue. By 4pm, your decision-making quality is 40% worse than at 9am. Planning tonight means decisions made when you're not depleted. Wake up, no decision required, just execute.

What This Actually Looks Like

I write my six tasks around 6pm. After the work is done but before I'm mentally checked out.

Some days all six get done. Most days I finish three or four. Some days just one.

But that one is always the most important thing. That's the point.

The method doesn't promise you'll do more. It promises you'll do what matters.

The Part Nobody Talks About

The ranking step is brutal.

You have to look at six things and admit that five of them matter less than one. That the email you've been avoiding matters more than the meeting you wanted to take. That the strategic work matters more than the busy work that feels productive.

Most productivity systems let you hide from this. You can have 47 tasks and pretend they're all equally important. You can organize them by project or context or energy level.

The Ivy Lee Method makes you pick. This one. Then this one. Then this one.

Why I Still Use It

I've tried everything. GTD. Pomodoro. Time blocking. Notion templates. Productivity apps with features I'll never use.

They all fail the same way. Too much system, not enough work.

The Ivy Lee Method takes two minutes to set up. Requires a piece of paper and a pen. No app. No template. No subscription.

Write six things. Rank them. Do them in order.

When I follow it, I get the important work done. When I don't, I spend the day busy but unproductive.

The Modern Version Nobody Needs

People keep trying to improve this method. Apps that rank your tasks automatically. Systems that integrate with your calendar. AI tools that prioritize for you.

All of them miss the point.

The ranking is the work. The constraint is the feature. The simplicity is why it works.

You don't need an app to tell you what matters. You already know. You just need a system that forces you to admit it.

Six Tasks

Tonight, before you finish work, write down six tasks for tomorrow.

Not the six easiest. Not the six most urgent. The six most important.

Rank them. Be honest about which one actually matters most.

Tomorrow morning, start with task one. Work until it's complete.

Then move to task two.

That's the method that was worth $400,000 in 1918.

It's still worth it today.

To doing what matters, Dan

P.S. The hardest part isn't doing the tasks. It's ranking them honestly. If you can't decide which task is most important, that's not a ranking problem. That's a clarity problem. Fix that first.

BBC

The Interview with Reza Pahlavi

Listen Here

Dose by TJ Power.

On my second reading, as a reminder of how to break my phone addiction

Read Here

The Dinosaurs on Netflix

Spielberg and Morgan Freeman, so obviously this 4 part series is as good as it sounds.

Watch Here

A 2020 study published in Emotion found that people who learned to accept their “non-ideal emotional states”, including low motivation, low energy, and neutral days, experienced significantly higher overall well-being and lower stress.

The key insight: self-acceptance amplifies emotional resilience, while self-judgment weakens it.

📌 Quick Takeaway →

Your average days aren’t failures; they’re emotional training grounds.
When you stop punishing yourself for being human, everything in your life compounds faster.

→ Link to study

In my goal to help more entrepreneurs/people who are looking to level up their careers, I've just started taking 1-1 consulting calls (only 1 a week)

Why book a call? Some of my expertise/success:

I've built 5 startups. 1 win, 1 fail, and 3 still going.
E-Commerce: Heights - with revenue over £20M a year.
Community: Foundrs, one of the UK's top founder communities
Podcasting: Leaders Media - I bootstrapped a media company that made the UK's top business podcasts including Secret Leaders, with over 50M downloads across the network.
Health/Mental Health: Overcame burnout, insomnia, depression & anxiety in pursuit of success. Hear me on Steven Bartlett's on Diary of a CEO
Angel Investing: I've invested in over 100 startups
Coached & Mentored: Certified coach & 5* mentor on Mentorpass
Personal Brand: Over 400,000 followers across social

So if you're interested in booking a session with me to talk all things business or building a personal brand, book for 30-minutes or 45-minutes. (limited spots).

Book a Call with Dan