If you wish to be extra productive, it is best to look to somebody who has productiveness down pat. Monetary blogs are eternally interviewing up to date CEOs about their work habits, however these aren’t that inspirational; they’re all the time claiming that meditation and never answering emails are the keys to success, which isn’t actually useful to the common one who doesn’t have the time or assets to meditate or the luxurious of an assistant to open the unanswered emails. For actual inspo, you would possibly wish to attempt trying again in time: Ivy Lee, the founder of recent public relations, got here up with a productiveness methodology so good that it’s lived on for 100 years—and it nonetheless bears his identify. Right here’s the best way to attempt it.
What’s the Ivy Lee methodology?
My dream in life is to do one thing so distinctive and superior that my identify will get hooked up to it for all eternity; however my extra short-term objectives contain simply getting my primary duties carried out day by day. Good outdated Ivy Lee by some means managed to do each of these issues. He got here up along with his productiveness methodology in an effort to assist large companies within the Nineteen Twenties get extra carried out. It’s all about creating manageable, prioritized to-do lists and sticking with them till they’re full.
How do you employ the Ivy Lee methodology?
The tactic itself is easy. On the finish of each work day, write down six duties you must full tomorrow. (If it’s Friday, write down what you’ll want to do Monday. Don’t neglect that taking breaks over the weekend is necessary for productiveness, too.) Don’t write down greater than six. The purpose right here is for the checklist to be manageable, not unending. Subsequent, prioritize them. You are able to do this nonetheless you see match, however take into account utilizing a technique just like the Eisenhower Matrix to determine which duties are the timeliest and most pressing.
The subsequent day, it’s time to start out on the checklist. Start with the primary process within the morning and see it throughout earlier than leaping to the second. Maintain going till the tip of the workday, tapping into your capability for doing deep work by specializing in only one process or challenge at a time. When your day is over, something that’s incomplete needs to be moved to tomorrow’s checklist and new duties needs to be added to it till you attain six.
By rolling the duties over, you guarantee they’ll get carried out, however by being conscious that you’ve the choice to roll them over in any respect, you gained’t really feel overwhelmed. Do attempt to hold the duties as granular as potential, although. As an alternative of writing “end-of-quarter report” as one checklist merchandise, break it down. If pulling and analyzing the info is a step to writing the report, make it one process. If inputting it right into a presentation is one other, that’s one process, too.
You are able to do this in a planner, a digital observe, and even your calendar, however crucial parts are sustaining that low variety of duties, prioritizing them, and never abandoning them if they’re unfinished. Be sure you prioritize no matter you roll over to the following day above any new duties, so every little thing will get carried out.
