• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
LeadershipMost Powerful Women

7 Productivity Tips Ivanka Trump Swears By

By
Valentina Zarya
Valentina Zarya
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Valentina Zarya
Valentina Zarya
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 2, 2017, 7:00 AM ET

To say Ivanka Trump wears many hats is an understatement. Right now, she’s an advisor to the president of the United States (who also happens to be her father). But even before taking on the White House role, she was a successful retail entrepreneur, an EVP at the Trump Organization, a wife, and a mother.

In her new book Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success, which hit bookshelves Tuesday, Trump shares a few things that help her juggle her many responsibilities. Here are some of the first daughter’s organization tips:

1. Color-code your calendar

Trump writes about the way she color-codes her digital calendar “by business and topic—construction, acquisition, design.” That way, she writes in her book, when she clicks on it, she gets a “visual snapshot” of where she is spending most of her time.

2. Look for patterns in your inbox

One of the things Trump writes about doing regularly is reviewing her emails to look for patterns and note if there are better ways to communicate on certain topics. She writes: “If, for example, my construction team is sending me complex questions by email twenty times a day, it would be more efficient to set up a face-to-face touch-base meeting with them on a recurring basis to get them the answers they need efficiently.”

3. Try out different journaling tactics

Aside from her digital calendar, Trump keeps a Moleskine notebook in which she organizes her long- and short-term goals. She uses Stephen Covey’s four-quadrant time management grid to organize each week (each quadrant represents a certain level of urgency and importance), and Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal for the day-to-day. “I’ve built an entire system of symbols that denote how timely each item on my to-do list is,” she writes.

Subscribe to the Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about powerful women.

4. Treat personal goals like you do professional ones

Trump is as rigorous in her personal life as she is in her professional one, making concrete goals to spend one-on-one time with her children and husband, Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner. “Right now, I play cars with [my older son] Joseph, on the floor, for twenty minutes each day. [My daughter] Arabella loves books, so I make a note to read at least two per day to her and plan ‘dates’ to the library.” She has an official “date night” with Kushner every other week.

5. Unplug (at least) once per week

From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, Trump disconnects completely—”no e-mails, no TV, no phone calls, no Internet”—for the Jewish traditional Shabbat. She credits this time away from the world with enabling her “to go back to work, full steam, the following Monday—or more realistically, Saturday night.”

6. Set resolutions for your business

While running her eponymous brand, Trump writes, she got in the habit of using New Year’s Day to brainstorm a long list of high-level objectives for each of the different businesses that she oversaw. “I break it out by company and write down but structural, overarching goals that I was to accomplish by the end of the year,” she writes.

7. Practice meditation

Trump says that meditation is, for her, the best way to start the day. “Transcendental meditation is a practice I picked up several years ago and I couldn’t do half of what I do in a day without it,” she writes. “Twenty minutes is ideal for calming the mind, eliminating distractions, and boosting my productivity.”

About the Author
By Valentina Zarya
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Leadership

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Leadership

UK-based Google DeepMind workers vote to unionize over military AI contracts amid internal backlash over its Pentagon deal
AIGoogle
UK-based Google DeepMind workers vote to unionize over military AI contracts amid internal backlash over its Pentagon deal
By Beatrice NolanMay 5, 2026
1 hour ago
GameStop’s billionaire CEO is an entrepreneur without a college degree who cofounded Chewy. Now he has his sights set on buying eBay for $56 billion
C-SuiteGameStop
GameStop’s billionaire CEO is an entrepreneur without a college degree who cofounded Chewy. Now he has his sights set on buying eBay for $56 billion
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezMay 5, 2026
1 hour ago
Young woman talking on her phone while walking
SuccessGen Z
Gen Z workers say showing up 10 minutes late to work is as good as on time—but baby boomer bosses have zero tolerance for tardiness, research reveals
By Orianna Rosa RoyleMay 5, 2026
3 hours ago
doubles
Workplace Cultureremote work
‘Did we learn nothing?’ Synchrony is hybrid, the Best Company to Work For, and puzzled by the return-to-office push
By Nick LichtenbergMay 5, 2026
4 hours ago
A jittery CEO crowd at Milken looks abroad for growth—and answers
NewslettersCEO Daily
A jittery CEO crowd at Milken looks abroad for growth—and answers
By Diane BradyMay 5, 2026
6 hours ago
Man in a suit with glasses
Big TechTech
Supermicro’s co-founder allegedly smuggled $2.5 billion in Nvidia-chipped servers to China—now the whole company is under the microscope
By Amanda GerutMay 5, 2026
7 hours ago

Most Popular

Diary of a CEO founder says he hired someone with 'zero' work experience because she 'thanked the security guard by name' before the interview
Success
Diary of a CEO founder says he hired someone with 'zero' work experience because she 'thanked the security guard by name' before the interview
By Emma BurleighMay 3, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, May 4, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, May 4, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 4, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of May 4, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 4, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 4, 2026
1 day ago
America got rich and got sad. A top economist says 2020 broke something that hasn't healed
Economy
America got rich and got sad. A top economist says 2020 broke something that hasn't healed
By Nick LichtenbergMay 3, 2026
2 days ago
As economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin's war on Ukraine. 'We can’t even take one region'
Economy
As economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin's war on Ukraine. 'We can’t even take one region'
By Jason MaMay 3, 2026
2 days ago
America is lucky it’s no longer a manufacturing powerhouse—it’s what’s protecting the U.S. economy from the worst of the oil shock, top economist says
Economy
America is lucky it’s no longer a manufacturing powerhouse—it’s what’s protecting the U.S. economy from the worst of the oil shock, top economist says
By Sasha RogelbergMay 4, 2026
23 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.