I'm writing this from my slightly-too-warm office (the afternoon sun hits this side of the house mercilessly and the HVAC unit servicing this area is 20 years old), having caught myself doing exactly what I recommend all of you not do.
A while back (late 2023), during a stint where I discussed task management apps, I wrote enthusiastically about the Ivy Lee method for finding the right balance of goals and focus for your to-do list. I related the story of Charles Schwab paying $25,000 in 1918 for productivity advice that boiled down to picking six tasks each evening for the next day. I even called it one of the few techniques that "actually stuck with me."
(Thanks to the Fed's endless inflation, an equivalent payment today would be well over $500,000.)
As of this morning, my task list had well over 20 items on it--some big, some small, but most quite old. The app I use for task management (Amazing Marvin) has this handy-dandy feature that displays the number of times a task has been pushed forward a day. They call it the "procrastination count."
Guess what? The average number across all of those tasks is 106.
ONE HUNDRED AND SIX DAYS.
That's nearly four months. Yikes!
When Good Habits Go Sideways
Here's what I think happened. The method did work brilliantly when I used it. Those evenings when I'd take five minutes to identify tomorrow's priorities helped the next day to flow much better by directing my focus specifically over only a few tasks. I knew exactly what to tackle first, didn't waste mental energy deciding what was important, and actually felt accomplished at day's end.
But somewhere between the end of 2023 and today, I stopped doing the evening review to plan tomorrow's task. I even had a habit reminder notification each evening, and after enough times where I dismissed it without taking action because life was in the way, I cleaned up the digital noise and disabled the functionally pointless notifications.
First it was "I'll plan in the morning instead." Then it became "I'll just work from my master list." Now I'm essentially playing task management whack-a-mole every morning, attacking whatever seems most urgent while quite of bit of important-but-not-urgent work languishes indefinitely.
Sound familiar? I bet it does for a lot of you.
The Real Problem
I realize here that the issue isn't that the Ivy Lee method stopped working. Done properly, it works great. The problem is that I treated it as a productivity hack instead of a sacred ritual.
When you think of something as a "hack" or "technique," it feels optional--something to do when convenient. But Ivy Lee himself emphasized treating this as a must-do practice. Not because someone's watching, but because your future self will do so much better starting each day with clarity.
The beauty of the method isn't just the prioritization; it's the mental transition it creates. When you plan tomorrow's tasks at day's end, you're giving yourself permission to stop thinking about work. You've made your decisions. The workday is complete. Your evening is actually yours.
Without that ritual, you go to bed with a vague sense of unfinished business, wake up already behind, and spend precious morning energy making decisions that should have been made 12 hours earlier.
Honestly, I can't count the number of times my task-oriented brain has continued spinning when I should have been falling asleep, even to the point where I grab my phone (and pull myself back into a fully awake state) just so I can jot down something I didn't want to forget to do the next day.
Making It Stick This Time
So here's what I'm doing differently, and what might help you too if you've let this habit slide (or never started it):
- Lower the bar. Instead of six tasks, I'm starting with three. Better to plan three and accomplish them than to plan six and feel overwhelmed before breakfast.
- Set a specific trigger. Mine is the end of the workday. Before I head downstairs out of my office, tomorrow's three tasks must be chosen and written down.
- Make it visible. Surprising even myself, I've gone analog for this: a sticky note placed on my keyboard. No app to open, no password to enter, no notifications to distract.
- Forgive the lapses. When I miss a day—and I will—I won't let it derail the whole system. One missed evening doesn't erase the value of the previous successful ones.
Those of you who have been reading along for a while know that using a sticky note--real paper, egads!--is shockingly uncommon for me. I prefer to keep everything digital for a variety of reasons. And, to be truthful, my three prioritized tasks are still also going in my task management app under the "Essential" section for the following day. I'm not abandoning the digital side of things entirely, even for this one little area.
But the sticky note approach, forcing myself to write actual words with an actual pen on actual paper, is part of what I hope will cement this in my brain and routine as something important and meaningful enough to keep despite life getting in the way.
Your Turn
Here's my challenge to you this week: try a 1-Task Ivy Lee method for the next seven days.
Tonight, before you finish up (whether that's shutting down your computer, putting away your work materials, heading to bed, or otherwise just declaring "done" for the day), write down one thing for tomorrow. Not six, not even three, just one.
But make sure you think of it as an important aspect of your day. You aren't just considering your to-do list and deciding, "Ehh, I'll do that one tomorrow." No. You're choosing the single most important thing that you will, under no circumstances, leave unfinished the following day. That way, you have immediate direction as soon as you wake up, and even if you only do that one thing, you'll still feel accomplished.
If you're already using some version of this, tell me about it! Has it stuck? What made the difference? And if you've tried and failed before (raises hand), what got in the way?
Reply and let me know if you're up for taking this week's challenge. Sometimes knowing someone else is doing the same thing is all the accountability we need.
Until next week, happy data-taming!