A Productivity Tip from the 1930s

Exploring the strategy that made millions for the Bethlehem Steel Company in the mid-20th Century

Dear Beloved Reader,

I hope this article finds you well.

I indulge in self-help content a lot. A few weeks before starting university, I read, didn’t finish though, “How to Study in College”. I forgot most of it. But. One technique stuck around. Whenever I think of productivity tips, this one always pops up first.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, photographed by William H. Rau, 1896

Here is an excerpt on it from the book:

Charles Schwab, then chairman of the Bethlehem Steel Company, went to management consultant Ivy Lee with the challenge, “Show me a way to get more things done with my time, and I’ll pay you any fee within reason.” Lee thought for a while, then said:

• Every evening write down the six most important tasks for the next day in order of priority.

• Every morning start working on task #1 and continue until you finish it; then start on task #2, and so on. Do this until quitting time and don’t be concerned if you have finished only one or two tasks.

• At the end of each day, tear up the list and start over.

Schwab ultimately paid $25,000 for this counsel, an amount that rounded to a quarter of a million dollars in 2016.

What I love the most about this technique is that it is so simple. As long as you can remember to write down the six most important things to do in the evening, it is very easy.

This “easy” refers to the act of thinking of and writing it down in the evening, not to actually doing them the next day. The latter is the much harder part.

I’ll tell you my experience, spanning over five years, with this technique.

I would get up in the morning and completely forget that I wrote something down yesterday to follow through today. I’d remember my list quite later on in the day. This pattern went on for a little too long. It was natural to give up on this.

I think then a few years later, my much older and mature self, decided to rekindle this ritual. It still took me some time to remember in the morning that I had made some plans yesterday.

Integrating this ritual into your daily routine does take quite some time, especially when you have a haphazard routine. Once you do get into this habit, writing six most important tasks in the evening, looking at it in the morning, taking up the first item on the list and then actually doing it, and so on for the next item, till your day ends, it does yield some good results.

If I kept reviewing this list throughout the day, it would be a reminder to myself of the things and tasks that matter most to me; leading me to focus my energies on the important stuff.

Bethlehem Sparrows Point, Maryland

So, it is not a miraculous productivity technique here to solve all your disciplinary problems. But it is a good starting point. In particular, if you are looking to build your getting-things-done system, I’d say Ivy Lee’s strategy would be a good foundation to lay down and then build on top of it.

In the end, as the cliche goes, the best self-help hack is the one that works best for you, your unique challenges, and your life’s unique circumstances.