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Ivy Lee’s Secret: The Best To-Do List Method You Never Knew Existed
A 100-year-old productivity hack — more relevant than ever
We’re going analog today. Stick your phone back in your pocket. Close out your Evernote files and your favorite apps. Today we’re going to lick your to-do list once-and-for-all.
And it all starts with a 100-year-old tip from a management consultant.
To-do lists have become a religion of their own. There are the folks with colored pens and bullet journals. There’s GTD and One Thing. We’ve got a hundred different systems for organizing, planning, and cramming one-hundred pounds of work in a two-pound bag.
The work gets bigger while the bag stays the same.
We’ve all got 24 hours. No matter who you are or where you’re from. Unless you die in the middle of the day, you, me, Warren Buffet, and the kid with the lemonade stand all have the sames-sized bag of time.
For a minute, multi-tasking was a buzzword until we realized our conscious brains can only process one task at a time. Turns out, multi-tasking makes us less productive (if you’d like to boost your subconscious, read my story below).