Free Ivy Lee Method Planner | Daily Six
Write six tasks in priority order, work them top down, roll the rest to tomorrow
Six Tasks, In Order, One At A Time
- 1 This evening, write the six most important things for tomorrow. Six, not seven.
- 2 Put them in true priority order, then switch to work mode and start at number one
- 3 Close the day and whatever is unfinished rolls to tomorrow, with a count of how often
🔒 Your list, roll-over counts, and history stay in your browser. No account, nothing sent to any server.
List for
of six written , done
This list is written for tomorrow, the way the method intends. It unlocks for working when tomorrow arrives.
Add them in any order, then use the arrows to rank them. Position one is what you start with tomorrow, no negotiation.
Six is the method, not a limit we invented. A seventh item is almost always a way of avoiding the decision about which six actually matter. If something new is more important than what is already there, delete the weakest one and earn its place.
Nothing written yet. Six lines, tonight, for tomorrow. That is the whole ritual.
. This is not a task any more. Break it into a first step or drop it.
Worth a hard look
"" has . An item that keeps surviving the list is usually a project, a decision you are avoiding, or something that was never really yours to do.
days logged
tasks finished
%
of planned items done
%
days the number one got done
of logged days ended with the whole list clear. The number one rate matters more than the total.
Closing the day files it under history, then starts tomorrow's list with everything you did not finish already at the top.
No days saved yet. Close your first day and it lands here with what got done and what rolled.
of done · number one finished
- rolled
The Ivy Lee Method: Six Tasks, In Order, One At A Time
In 1918 the productivity consultant Ivy Lee was hired by Charles Schwab, then running Bethlehem Steel. The story says Lee spent fifteen minutes with each executive, asked for no payment up front, and told Schwab to send a cheque for whatever he thought the advice was worth. Three months later the cheque was for 25,000 dollars, which is well over half a million in today's money.
It is worth saying plainly: that is a story, not evidence. It comes to us through business folklore and decades of retelling, with no trial, no control group, and no record of what Bethlehem Steel's output actually did. Treat the cheque as marketing. The routine is worth running for what it forces you to do, not for what it supposedly did in 1918.
The routine, exactly as it is usually told
- At the end of each working day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. No more than six.
- Put those six in true order of importance.
- Tomorrow, start with the first item and stay on it until it is finished.
- Work down the list the same way. Anything unfinished moves to the top of the next day's six.
- Repeat every working day.
Why six works
The cap is doing the heavy lifting. A list with no ceiling lets you record everything and decide nothing, so the real prioritising gets postponed until the moment you are staring at it, tired, at 9am. Six forces the ranking to happen the night before, when it is a calm judgement rather than a panic. The ordering removes the second decision too, the one you would otherwise re-litigate after every completed task: what now? The answer is always the next line down.
Writing it the evening before matters more than people expect. It closes the day cleanly, which is why it pairs naturally with a shutdown ritual, and it works best after a brain dump has emptied everything out of your head so the six are chosen rather than remembered.
When six is too many
Six deep tasks is a fantasy day for anyone in a meeting-heavy, reactive, or caregiving role. If your list rolls over almost entirely for a week, six is not your number: try three, and treat everything else as bonus. That is also what the roll-over counter here is for. An item that has rolled five times is telling you something specific, and it is never "try harder". It is usually a project pretending to be a task, a decision you have not made, or a job that was never really yours. If the strict single-file order is too rigid for your work, the 1-3-5 task planner is a looser daily shape with the same anti-overwhelm idea. Everything you type here stays in your browser using localStorage, with no account and nothing sent to any server.
How to Use This Tool
-
1
At the end of your working day, write the six most important things you have to do tomorrow
-
2
Rank them with the arrows: position one is what you start with in the morning, no negotiation
-
3
A seventh item is refused on purpose, so delete the weakest one if something better arrives
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4
Tomorrow, switch to Work mode where only the current task stays lit and everything below it dims
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5
Finish strictly top down, one at a time, using Blocked only when a task genuinely cannot move
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6
Close the day: finished items are filed to your history and unfinished ones roll to tomorrow with a count of how many times they have rolled
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a five-step daily routine from 1918. At the end of each working day you write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow, no more than six. You order them by true importance. The next day you start with the first item and stay on it until it is finished, then work down the list the same way. Anything unfinished moves to the top of tomorrow's six, and you repeat every working day.
Treat it as folklore. The story is that consultant Ivy Lee gave the routine to Charles Schwab at Bethlehem Steel for free and was sent a cheque for 25,000 dollars three months later, well over half a million in today's money. There is no trial, no control group and no record of what output actually did, and the anecdote reaches us through decades of retelling. The routine is worth running for what it forces you to do, not because of a cheque nobody can verify.
The cap is doing the heavy lifting. A list with no ceiling lets you record everything and decide nothing, so the real prioritising gets postponed until you are staring at it, tired, at 9am. Six forces the ranking to happen the night before when it is a calm judgement. The ordering also removes the second decision, the one you would otherwise re-litigate after every completed task: what now? The answer is always the next line down.
Look at it properly. This planner counts every roll-over and flags an item that has rolled five times, because at that point it is not a task any more. It is usually a project pretending to be a task, a decision you have been avoiding, or a job that was never really yours to do. The fix is to break it into a genuine first step, hand it back, or delete it. Rolling it a sixth time is not one of the options.
Six deep tasks is a fantasy day for anyone in a meeting-heavy, reactive or caregiving role. If your list rolls over almost entirely for a week, six is not your number. Try three and treat anything else as bonus. The method is the constraint plus the strict order, not the specific figure, and a short list you actually finish teaches you more than a long one you abandon.
Yes. Your six tasks, their order, the roll-over counts and every saved day are stored only in your browser using localStorage. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and nobody else can read it. Copy the list to your clipboard if you want a backup, and clearing your browser data erases everything.
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