José Antonio David Nasser

April 17, 2025

Managing Your Time

De Business Works podcast, 24 jun 2018

“So one of the stories that stuck in my mind the most was about Charles Schwab, not the one we know today, but Charles Schwab was one of the richest men in the world in the early 19th, 20th century. By 1918, he was the president of Bethlehem Steel and the largest shipbuilder and the second largest steel producer in America. Thomas Edison talked about him, Schwab, as being the master hustler.

He was always looking for a way to get an upper hand on his competition, which at that time was US. Steel. So one day he brought in an efficiency expert that he had heard about, a very respected man called Ivy Lee, who was a productivity consultant.

And so Lee was a successful man in his own right. And so the story goes, Schwab brought Lee into his office and said, show me a way to get more things done, become more productive.

So he said, give me 15 minutes with each of your executives. And Schwab agreed to that. So he sat down with each executive.

And when he finished, Schwab said, how much will it cost me? And Lee said, nothing, unless it works. And after three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel is worth to you.

At the end of three months, Schwab gave him a check for $25,000, which in today's money is over $400,000. 

And what he simply told him was, at the end of each workday, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six.

Then you prioritize those six items. And when you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. And you work until that's finished before moving to the second one.

And you approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to the new list of six items for the following day. And repeat this process every working day.

So the strategy sounded simple, but Schwab and the executive team at Bethlehem gave it a try. And after three months, he was so excited. That's when he sent the check to Ivy Lee.”