Image this: You’ve simply strolled into the cooking area to make a turkey sandwich for lunch. You open the fridge to find you’re out of turkey. Rats. So, you go to grab a plate to make something else and recognize you’re totally out of clean plates. Turns out, you forgot to discharge the dishwasher yesterday. That discusses the stack of dishes in the sink and the messy state of your kitchen area. You ought to most likely clean down the counters after you eliminate the mess on top of them, but you don’t want to misplace the grocery list you started composing last night. The first thing on the list? Turkey.

A more than 100-year-old efficiency hack could assist you knock out all of the tasks on your list– and then some. It’s called the “Ivy Lee Method,” and for many individuals, it works.

Laura Vanderkam, efficiency specialist and author of Tranquility by Tuesday
What is the “Ivy Lee Method”?
The approach goes back to 1918, when the president of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Charles M. Schwab, worked with efficiency specialist Ivy Lee to make his workplace more efficient. The story goes that Lee requested 15 minutes with each of Schwab’s magnates, and laid out a couple of steps they should take every day. They were:

At the end of every day, make a list of the six essential jobs you need to complete the following day. No more, no less. You can use a Post-It note, your Notes app, or perhaps the back of a receipt.
Put those 6 things in order of value. The most pressing products should be near the top.
The next day, get started on only the first job. See that job to conclusion before beginning the 2nd item on your list, etc.
Do not beat yourself up if you do not end up all of the jobs. Merely move your unfinished things to your list for the next day, and begin once again.
Repeat this procedure every day– and enjoy your worries about an unwieldy order of business dissipate.
Does the “Ivy Lee Method” Work?
The idea is that a relatively short list of 6 things avoids decision fatigue. Every morning, you know which tasks you need to achieve and in what order. It’s a technique that can be applied to keeping your house tidy, remaining on top of things at work, and a lot of other parts of your life.

” People frequently get distracted with low-priority jobs when things seem urgent in the moment,” discusses Laura Vanderkam, a productivity professional and author of Tranquility by Tuesday. “When you sweep back and forth in between things you do not get much done. When you stick with essential jobs till you finish them, you can feel an unbelievable sense of accomplishment.”

Crossing one thing off of your to-do list gives you a quick hit of dopamine. Then, without having to decide what to do next, you can move on to your next job– and knock that out, too. The charm of the method depends on its simpleness.

If you’re still getting distracted by all of the things you could be taking care of at home, Vanderkam recommends adding a timer into your Ivy Lee Method.

” Given that household chores can expand to fill the available area, I suggest people set a timer or at least choose how much time they mean to devote to it. If you prepare to clean up till you are “done” you will never genuinely be done (a minimum of if you deal with anyone else!),” she states. “But if you choose to invest 60 minutes cleansing, you will pretty naturally focus on the most immediate things. You can offer yourself approval to relax. There was a time to clean up your house … and now is not that time.”

Intrigued in checking out such a time-honored performance hack? Ready, set, go.