Tony Williamson The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

- W. Somerset Maugham

In the 1920s, Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel Company in the United States, posed an unusual challenge to Ivy Lee, an efficiency consultant. "Show me a way to get more things done with my time," Schwab said, "and I'll pay you any fee within reason."

"Fine," answered Lee. "I can give you something in 20 minutes that will improve your results from action and doing by at least 50 per cent."

"Okay," Schwab said, "let's have it now, for 20 minutes is just about all the time I have before my train leaves."

Lee took out a blank sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to Schwab.

"Write on this piece of paper the six most important tasks you have to do tomorrow." Schwab took three minutes to write down the tasks.

"Now," Lee continued, "number them in order of their importance." Schwab did that in five minutes. "Now," said Lee, "put this paper in your pocket and tomorrow morning, first thing, look at item one and start working on it until it is finished. Go to item two and tackle that the same way; then item three, and so on. Do this until your day ends.

"Do not be concerned if you have only finished one or two. You'll be working on the most important ones. If you can't finish them all by this method, you couldn't have done with any other method either and without some system, you'd probably not even have decided which item was the most important."

List activities for the week

Lee finished by saying to Schwab, "Do this every working day. If you feel it works for you, have your employees try it for themselves. Try it for as long as you wish, and if it works send me a cheque for what you think it is worth." This whole interview took less than 20 minutes and Schwab departed.

After a few weeks Schwab sent Lee a cheque for $25,000 with a letter saying that this piece of advice generated him more profits than any other single piece of advice he had ever received. In five years this plan turned Bethlehem Steel Company into the largest producer of steel in the world and helped to put US$100 million in the pocket of Charles Schwab.

I came upon this story in August 1969 from a book loaned me by a young playwright named Trevor Rhone. I had been recently married and was contemplating entering the life insurance industry. Trevor lived in the same apartment complex and we struck up a relationship. He was writing a play about life insurance salesmen and when I shared with him my interest and my wife's concerns, he loaned me some of his research material. I took this one idea called a 'to-do' list and I have worked with it since then.

People often are curious about how I organise myself. This is how I do it, and the idea came from Charles Schwab and the to-do list.

WHY USE A TO-DO LIST

Time is precious, and whether you are the managing director of a large corporation, a salesman, a housewife, a pastor, or a social worker, you can have no finer organiser of your time than a daily to-do list. If you work with a personal pocket computer or organiser, it's the section called Tasks.

At the end of your day, set aside 15 minutes to write down (or type in) tomorrow's tasks. Record them as they come to mind. After you have written out the tasks, go back over your list and number them in order of priority or importance, No. 1 being the most important,then No. 2, and so on. Start your day by tackling No. 1, exactly as Charles Schwab did. When you accomplish it, cross out the entry with a straight line. Whatever you have not crossed out was not accomplished.

You simply carry these over to the next day's to-do list and repeat every working day. You will find, as I have done over the last 38 years, that this one act is the single most important tool of time and self-management every day. Try it; it works.