​First, a confession: I don’t always try out the tips and hacks that we include in our UARF email newsletter. I should… but I have to admit that I don’t.

But every so often, a hack comes along that is so well suited to solving my problems that I immediately give it a try.

In February 2020, we published a blog written by our talented UARF intern Kenny Aronson on a 100-year old productivity tip used by captains on industry in the early 1900s: the Ivy Lee Method for Increasing Productivity.
Here’s how it works:

1. At the end of your workday, write down the 6 most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow.
2. Next, rank the 6 items in order of how important they are.
3. On the next day, focus on only the first task. You can only move to the second task after finishing the first.
4. Work through your entire list the same way. At the end of the day, create a new list of 6 tasks (including any you didn’t finish).
5. Rinse and repeat.

I know that this seems super simple, and it is. It just requires discipline to do this every day and intellectual honestly to rank which tasks are really important.

Why did this tip seem relevant to me?

•  I have a lot of competing priorities – requirements from UARF’s funders and requests from startup companies – that feel like a sandstorm engulfing me.
• My task list is always crammed 100 things to do that are supposedly urgent, but might not actually be important.
• I know that I sometimes fail to do small, straightforward tasks that will really “move the needle” toward long-term success.

If this sounds even a little bit like your life, I’d recommend giving the simple, old-school Ivy Lee Method a try. I’ve been using this method for almost a year now, and I’ve found it has helped me tremendously to:

• Set my own priorities, rather than letting others set them for me.
• Cull my task list down to a manageable number of items – both by being more productive and by eliminating some stuff that doesn’t matter.
• Get the most important, most impactful tasks done now.
•  Feel a greater sense of accomplishment.

In addition to the straightforward method outlined above, here are a few tips from
my experience implementing the method.

6 isn’t the only magic number:
Not everyone has a job or the kind of task list that allows you to get 6 tasks done a day. That’s okay. I had actually tried this method out in 2018 with 3 tasks a day, and it didn’t work for me at all. (I’m an eternal optimist and 3 tasks didn’t seem like very many, so I’d just put my 3 tasks off until the afternoon and then not get them done.) Different numbers of tasks are optimal for different people, and you might need to play around a bit to figure out what your magic number is.

Actually write down the tasks:
A mental list is not a substitute for an actual written list. You can keep your list digitally in an app like Things or Google Tasks, or you can write them on a sticky note. But I’ve found that actually writing the tasks down triggers some mental switch that helps me commit to doing them.

Delete stuff off your task list:
Prioritizing is great, but focusing is even better. Each Friday, I look at my list of potential tasks for the coming week. For each task, I ask myself: Is this important? What will happen if I don’t do this task? Any task that I don’t think is important gets deleted from the list, and I’ve found that most of the time nothing bad happens.

Be kind to yourself:
No one – I mean, NO ONE – is going to get all 6 tasks done every single day. It’s great to strive, but also remember to be kind to yourself when you don’t reach your goals. Just move anything you didn’t get done to the next day, and move on. No big deal. So to wrap up, try the Ivy Lee Method out. It’s a super simple method that works surprisingly well in a super complicated world.

A group of senior biomedical engineering students at The University of Akron participated in the spring 2020 cohort of the program to further research into the development of a cuff-less blood pressure monitor. Team members Megan Laws, Allie Stephens and Alison Targosky answered some questions about their product.
Tell us about your product, the cuff-less blood pressure monitor.
“The monitor is a cuff-less device that will determine blood pressure noninvasively utilizing Korotkoff sounds. These Korotkoff signals are detected using a microphone module and filtering system. The cuff-less feature reduces the risk of product misuse and misplacement and allows for the device to be more comfortable for the patient. After further miniaturization, the product is expected to be wireless so that measurements can be taken easily without the need for excessive, bulky equipment.”
What influenced you to conceptualize a cuff-less blood pressure monitor?
“The original idea was conceptualized last summer at the 2019 Biomedical Engineering Society Coulter College design training program. The competition pushed the team to think outside of the box and create innovative solutions to pressing medical problems. Through several interviews with health care professionals, we saw a common issue with the typical blood pressure monitor’s cuff component. By using a cuff-less design, we were able to alleviate many of the issues that had been expressed with the current equipment.”
As part of the I-Corps program, you had to interview potential customers for your product. Who did you interview for feedback? Was there anything that surprised you from the interviews?
“We began the interview process by speaking directly with health care workers that would be operating the device. These professionals had great insight about the pitfalls of current devices and the environments in which they are used. Blood pressure has what appears to be an infinite number of applications and we seem to uncover new settings that rely on blood pressure monitors with every interview. I-Corps encouraged us to interview more people that would have business insight, aka those with purchasing power. This got us to shift gears and interview people who are more involved with the supply chain, including purchase coordinators from various hospitals. As engineering students, we didn’t have a significant amount of experience with purchasing processes, so these interviews were very insightful when trying to determine our path to market.”
Where are you at now with the project?
“There is still a bit of development to complete on the device. Our most recent accomplishment was successful testing of the Proof of Concept Prototype. This testing proved that we can pick up on Korotkoff sounds without restricting an artery in the traditional manner with an arm cuff. With some design refinements, we will be able verify some critical outputs and miniaturize components for easier operation. To fund this development, the team has been spending the past several weeks since graduation applying to various design competitions and grants.”
How did the I-Corps program help you along this development journey? What was your biggest takeaway?
“I-Corps gave us the opportunity to further refine our target market by doing over 20 customer interviews. These interviews allowed us to explore different stakeholders and their input about what the problems are with current blood pressure monitors. The mentorship that I-Corps provided allowed us to investigate stakeholders we may have never even thought of, such as purchasing coordinators and buyers. The biggest takeaway from the program would be the development of our business model. This is something we were not familiar with prior to I-Corps, and with their guidance, we were able to develop a working business model canvas. I-Corps also shed the light on our device’s value. The original problem that we were solving was related to accuracy, but we didn’t realize that we can also save time for healthcare workers with this device.”
Your group was a recipient of the 2020 Lubrizol Life Science Health Design Awards. What was it like to get such recognition for your project?
“It was truly an honor and a testament of our hard work toward the project over the last year. Our 2020 graduating class had many talented teams that were solving significant problems, and to be selected as one of two winners amongst our class enunciates our dedication to this project’s success.”
Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect your research and development process?
“Yes, in mid-march, when Akron decided to continue the rest of the academic semester online, we knew that we were not going to be able to get the project to a place that we originally wanted by the time the team graduated. Without the ability to meet in person and physically develop the device, all design efforts were halted for our project. Even during I-Corps, it was difficult to obtain an interview with a health care professional because everyone’s time went toward COVID-19 relief. Fortunately, we were able to develop our business models and other aspects of the device that we could do virtually during this time.”
Group members: Senior biomedical engineering students Megan Laws, Arael Monroe, Jillian Savage, Allie Stephens and Alison Targosky
Media contact: Alex Knisely, 330-972-6477 or aknisely@uakron.edu.

​Elon Musk was once asked who his greatest inspiration was.
 
You, like most people, might have expected his response to be Nikola Tesla…
 
But surprisingly, Elon’s answer was actually Thomas Edison.

​And there’s a good reason for that… you see, lots of people like to associate Edison with a bad connotation. Especially for ruthlessly dominating Tesla in the business world from his strategic business tactics.
 
However, Elon realized something important, it’s not just being able to invent great products that change the world…
 
But being able to push those ideas, products, and services out into the world.

It’s getting close to the end of the semester!

It’s exciting that’s it’s almost over right? But frustrating because you’ve got so much going on…

All the projects, exams, and homework you have to do…

It all seems to pile up. 

Stressing you out and making it harder to focus on your ideas. 

It’s a problem lots of student entrepreneurs suffer from. 

So what do you do?

How do you get your school work done… and make progress as a student entrepreneur?