Margaret Lukens is a professional organizer. Through her company, New Leaf Services (newleafservices.com), she works with busy professionals and creative people, helping them find simplicity, clarity, and room to grow. She brings her experience as a business owner, not-for-profit executive and educator to organizing her clients’ time, paper and projects. She can be reached at 650.342.0580.
The story goes that Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel in the early 1900’s, was approached by an efficiency expert named Ivy Lee. Lee’s proposal was this: give me 15 minutes with each of your key employees and I will show you a dramatic increase in their sales and efficiency. If I fail, you pay nothing. Try it for 90 days and then send me a check for whatever you think my method is worth.The story goes that Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel in the early 1900’s, was approached by an efficiency expert named Ivy Lee. Lee’s proposal was this: give me 15 minutes with each of your key employees and I will show you a dramatic increase in their sales and efficiency. If I fail, you pay nothing. Try it for 90 days and then send me a check for whatever you think my method is worth.
Schwab agreed.
Lee met with Bethlehem Steel’s executives and sales personnel and asked them for just one thing. For the next 90 days before leaving the office, they were to write down the six most important things they had to do the next day, number them in order of importance, then do them in order.
After three months, Schwab studied the results and sent Lee a check for $35,000, which was equivalent at that time to roughly $4 to $5 million today.
This story was repeated by Mary Kay Ash, founder of the billion-dollar cosmetics company that bears her name. She followed Ivy Lee’s hundred-year-old advice, and you may want to try it, too.
Each day review all your tasks. Determine which ones have the most value. The best way to do this is to consider how critical they are to your company’s bottom line. New sales, investments, and customer service rank high.
Then consider the deadline. When must this be done? Is there a critical deadline? Is someone else waiting for your work?
Choose the top six. The next morning, begin task one and work until it’s done.
Eliminate as many distractions as possible. Watch out for common distractions such as getting caught up in other people’s emergencies, checking email, and other forms of interruption. Learn to say no graciously. If a co-worker asks for “just one minute,” respond with, “I’m in the middle of finishing something important, can it wait for one hour?” Increasingly companies recognize their employees’ need for unbroken time and are working to develop a culture that honors that need.
Any tasks left over at the end of the day are carried over to the following day.
Finishing tasks requires focus. Narrowing your focus to just the next six things allows your mind to work with more ease, so you can actually accomplish more with less effort. And couldn’t we all use a little more ease?