What if the most powerful productivity system ever invented required nothing more than a pen, a piece of paper, and six items?
In 1918, efficiency consultant Ivy Lee shared this exact idea with Charles Schwab, the CEO of Bethlehem Steel — and Schwab later called it the most valuable business advice he had ever received.
Over a century later, Ivy6 brings this timeless method to your iPhone in a beautifully native, distraction-free experience.
What Is the Ivy Lee Method?
The Ivy Lee Method is radically simple:
- At the end of each day, write down the 6 most important tasks you need to accomplish tomorrow
- Prioritize them by true importance — #1 is the most critical, #6 is the least
- The next day, start with task #1 and don’t move to task #2 until it’s done
- Any unfinished tasks move to the next day’s list for re-evaluation
That’s it.
No complex system, no color-coding, no weekly reviews with 47 sub-categories.
Just six tasks, done in order.
The power of the method lies not in what it adds to your day — but in everything it forces you to leave out.
Why Ivy6? Because Every Other App Gets It Wrong
Most productivity apps are designed to help you capture more — more tasks, more projects, more reminders.
They promise organization but deliver overwhelm.
Ivy6 is designed around a different philosophy: the constraint is the feature.
By limiting your daily focus to six tasks, Ivy6 forces a daily act of prioritization that most people avoid.
It doesn’t let you add a seventh task to your daily list.
It doesn’t show you 200 overdue reminders the moment you open it.
It shows you exactly what matters today — nothing more.
Six Features That Make the Ritual Work
Inbox — Your External Brain
Ideas, errands, and future projects live in the Inbox, completely separate from your daily commitments.
Capture everything immediately so nothing gets lost and nothing clutters your focus.
When your evening planning ritual begins, you promote the most important items from Inbox to your Daily 6.
Daily 6 — The Commitment Engine
This is where the Ivy Lee Method comes alive.
You pick up to six tasks and commit to them for the day.
The sequential design means you can only see and act on one task at a time — your current #1 priority.
Completing it moves you to the next.
The satisfaction of moving through a focused list is immediate and visceral.
Focus Mode — Deep Work, Distraction-Free
When you’re ready to work, tap into Focus Mode.
The screen collapses to show one thing: your task and a live timer.
Nothing else.
Ivy6 tracks exactly how much focused time you dedicate to each task, pausing automatically if you leave the app.
Over time, this builds a precise picture of where your real work hours go.
Midnight Rollover — A Fresh Start Every Day
At midnight, Ivy6 automatically resets your daily list.
Completed tasks go to your history.
Unfinished tasks return to the Inbox for re-evaluation.
There are no “overdue” tasks in Ivy6 — only tomorrow’s priorities.
This removes the psychological weight of an ever-growing backlog and makes every morning feel like a clean slate.
Weekly Insights — See Your Patterns
The insights dashboard shows your Rollover Rate, total focus time, and task-specific durations over the last seven days.
If your Rollover Rate is high, it’s a signal you’re overestimating your daily capacity.
If your focus time is concentrated in afternoon sessions, that’s when you should schedule your most important tasks.
Ivy6 doesn’t just help you do more — it helps you understand how you work.
Widgets & Live Activities — Priority Always in Sight
Your #1 task is always visible, even without opening the app.
Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets keep your priority front and center throughout the day.
When Focus Mode is active, the Dynamic Island on iPhone 16 Pro+ shows your task and live timer at the top of the screen — your commitment follows you everywhere without interrupting what you’re doing.
Built for iPhone, Designed for Simplicity
Ivy6 is a 100% native iOS app built with SwiftUI and optimized for the latest iPhone hardware.
Every interaction — from adding a task to completing a focus session — is smooth, fast, and intentional.
The app runs at a fluid 120fps on ProMotion displays, responds to your voice through Siri, and syncs across all your Apple devices via CloudKit with Ivy6 Pro.
The design system uses an organic, earthy palette that feels calm and grounded — the visual antithesis of the flashy, anxiety-inducing interfaces that dominate the App Store.
Opening Ivy6 should feel like sitting down at a clean desk, not opening a control room.
Ivy6 Pro — For Those Who Want the Full Ritual
The free version of Ivy6 gives you everything you need to practice the Ivy Lee Method on a single device. Ivy6 Pro unlocks the complete experience:
- CloudKit Sync — your tasks follow you across iPhone, and future Apple devices
- Advanced Insights — deep focus analytics and task-level duration tracking
- Seasonal Themes — Forest, Winter Frost, Summer Forest, and Autumn Sage — change the visual mood of your workspace with the season
- Support independent development — Ivy6 is built by a solo developer, ad-free, with no tracking and no subscriptions harvesting your attention
Ivy6 Pro is available as a one-time lifetime purchase.
No monthly fees.
No annual renewals.
Pay once, use forever.
Who Is Ivy6 For?
Ivy6 is for anyone who ends their day feeling busy but not productive.
It’s for the professional with 87 unread Slack messages who can’t remember what they actually accomplished.
It’s for the student who studies for six hours and finishes less than they planned.
It’s for anyone who suspects that the problem isn’t a lack of motivation — it’s a lack of focus.
If you’ve tried complex productivity systems and abandoned them because they required more maintenance than your actual work, the Ivy Lee Method might be exactly what you need.
And Ivy6 is the best version of that method your iPhone can offer.
Available Now on the App Store
Ivy6 is available for free on the App Store for iPhone running iOS 18 or later.
Download it, open it tonight, and write down the six most important things you need to do tomorrow.
Then close the app and go to sleep.
That’s the whole ritual.
It’s been working since 1918.
Download Ivy6 on the App Store — and start tomorrow with absolute clarity.
