To-Do List: How to Make One That Gets Done

A to-do list is not a plan. It is a written list of the tasks you intend to finish, usually within a day or a week, and it only becomes a plan when every item on it has a day, a size, and a reason. Writing tasks down is where most people stop. Deciding what happens to each one is where the list starts to work.

Three things turn a list into a plan: a reason for every item, a size for every item, and a day for every item. Everything else is formatting. The method below has six steps, a one-page template, and three lists that do three different jobs. It is worked through on one week of Maya, 38, a seventh-grade science teacher in Phoenix with two kids and an online master's degree to finish, whose list had 41 items on Sunday night and three on Monday morning.

What a to-do list is and what it is not

A to-do list is the place where tasks wait until you do them. Three things happen on a good one: you capture, you decide, and you check off. Capturing is writing the task down so your head can let go of it. Deciding is choosing when and whether it gets done. Checking off is the small reward that keeps the habit alive. Most lists do the first and the third. They skip the second.

Capturing is a good habit. It just does not decide anything. Bluma Zeigarnik showed in 1927 that unfinished tasks stay active in memory far longer than finished ones, which is why an open loop nags you at 11 p.m. Masicampo and Baumeister found in 2011 that the nagging stops not when the task is done but when you have made a concrete plan for it. That means: writing a task down calms you only if the note says when. A list of 41 bare items is 41 open loops on paper instead of in your head. The paper does not close them.

So the difference between a to-do list and a plan is one column. The list says what. The plan says what, when, and why. Anyone who adds that column to an existing list has done most of the work already. Anyone who keeps adding items without it has built an inventory, and inventories do not get shorter.

What goes on a to-do list: four kinds of items and where each belongs

A to-do list holds tasks. A task is one action with a verb that you can finish in one sitting. Most lists hold three other things as well, and each of them belongs somewhere else. Sorting them out is the first thing that makes a list shorter without doing any work.

Maya's 41 items shrank to 23 before she had done a single one. Seven moved to the calendar, where they already were. Five went to a someday list. Six were projects, and each project got exactly one next task on the list, which David Allen in Getting Things Done, 2001, calls the next action. The research paper became write the outline, 60 minutes. The science fair became email the parent volunteer list. Twenty-three tasks remained, and all of them were real.

Why does the sorting matter more than the doing? Because a project on a to-do list never gets checked off. Research paper sits there for six weeks and looks like failure every evening. Write the outline gets checked off on Tuesday. The project is the same. The feeling is not, and the feeling is what decides whether you open the list again on Wednesday.

Why your to-do list does not work: the three mistakes nobody notices

Most to-do lists fail quietly. Nobody decides to abandon one. It just stops being opened, usually in the third week, and the three mistakes that get it there never feel like mistakes while they happen. Which one is yours?

• The list as an inventory. Everything that was ever added stays until it is done. After a month the list has 60 items, and the first thing you see every morning is what you have not done. An inventory is useful. It is just not a to-do list. Keep it as a master list, and build each day's list from it fresh.
• Items without a size. Prepare for the conference, sort out the garage, work on the paper. None of these can be finished, because none of them says where finishing is. A task needs a verb and an end: print the three handouts, take the broken bike to the curb, write the outline. Whoever cannot say how long an item takes is looking at a project in disguise.
• Items without a reason. Every task on your list is there because of something. Some because of a goal you chose, some because of a deadline someone gave you, and some because they were easy to write down. The third kind crowds out the first. Anyone who cannot say why an item is on the list has found the item to cut.

There is a fourth mistake that hides behind the three: the list that is the only tool. A to-do list cannot hold appointments, projects, and ideas at the same time without becoming all of them. That means: the fix for a broken to-do list is rarely a better to-do list. It is a calendar for times, a project line for the big things, and a short list for today. Anyone who starts more than they finish can turn that short list into a personal kanban board, where a cap on open tasks means one gets done before the next begins.

How to make a to-do list that gets done: six steps

The method takes 25 minutes once a week and five minutes each evening. It is built from the four pieces above: capture, sort, size, decide. Here is how Maya ran it on a Sunday night in October, with the timing she actually used.

1. 01

   Dump everything, ten minutes

   Write down every open task in one place, from the grading pile to the dentist. Do not sort, do not judge, do not size. The point is to empty your head, not to produce a tidy list. Maya wrote 41 items in nine minutes, and the last six only came out because she kept going after the obvious ones.

2. 02

   Sort into four piles, five minutes

   Mark each item as task, project, appointment, or someday. Appointments go to the calendar. Someday items go to a separate list you read on the first of the month. Each project gets one next action with a verb, and the project name goes on a project line beside the list, not on it. Maya kept 23 tasks.

3. 03

   Attach a reason or cut it, five minutes

   Next to each task write what it serves: a goal of yours, a deadline from someone else, or nothing. Tasks that serve nothing are candidates to cut, and most lists have four or five of them. Maya cut three and moved eight to the master list because their deadline was more than a week away. Twelve tasks remained for the week.

4. 04

   Size every task, three minutes

   Give each task a verb and a time: write the outline, 60 minutes. Email the volunteer list, ten minutes. Anything over 90 minutes gets split. Anything under two minutes you do right now, which is Allen's two-minute rule. Maya did two of her twelve on the spot and had ten left.

5. 05

   Give each task a day, three must-dos a day at most

   Spread the week's tasks across Monday to Thursday. Three must-dos per day is the ceiling, not the target, because every week has two days that go sideways. Friday stays free as a buffer for whatever slipped. Maya placed ten tasks on four days: three on Monday and Tuesday, two on Wednesday and Thursday.

6. 06

   Close the list every evening, five minutes

   Each remaining item gets one mark: done, moved to a named day, or cut. Then write tomorrow's list, three must-dos and up to two if-time items, the way Ivy Lee told the executives at Bethlehem Steel to do in 1918. A list written the night before is a decision. A list written in the morning is a reaction to the inbox.

Twenty-five minutes on Sunday, five each evening. The weekly part matters more than it looks, because it is where the cutting happens, and cutting is the only step that makes Monday lighter. Anyone who skips Sunday and only writes daily lists is choosing from an inventory every morning, and the inventory always wins.

The example: Maya's week, from 41 items to three a day

Maya's situation, so the numbers make sense. She teaches seventh-grade science in Phoenix, five classes a day. Her kids are nine and six. She is in the last year of an online master's in school counseling, with a research paper due in November and 300 practicum hours to log by April. Her yearly goal is to finish the degree by May and apply for a counselor position at her own school for the next school year. Her October goal: submit the paper draft and log 35 practicum hours. The week she planned on that Sunday had to carry an outline, eight practicum hours, and the normal load of grading and family.

Count what the week did. Eight practicum hours, logged. An outline and a first section of the paper, written. The grading, done by Tuesday instead of Sunday night. Three if-time items done, two moved to the following week. The eight tasks that went to the master list on Sunday are still there, and none of them was missed, because none of them was due. Her old list would have shown all 41 items on Monday morning. Her new list showed three.

The number that matters is not 41 or 23. It is three. Three must-dos a day fit around five classes and two kids. Twelve would not. Anyone who plans twelve tasks for a day and finishes five has a 42 percent day and feels it. Anyone who plans three and finishes three has a 100 percent day with the same five tasks done, because two if-time items got done as well. The work was the same. The list was different.

To-do list template: one page, six fields

The template fits on an index card, a notes app, or a spreadsheet row. It has six fields, and the third column shows Maya's Tuesday so you see how little each field needs. Write it the evening before. It should take five minutes, and if it takes 15, the sorting from the weekly step has not happened yet.

Fields one and six are the ones most templates leave out, and they are the two that make the list work. The weekly goal at the top tells you why today matters, so a free 20 minutes goes to the paper and not to the inbox. The closing at the bottom is what keeps the list from becoming an inventory. Ready-made goal templates that break a yearly goal down into weeks and days sit under templates, and each one can be renamed or trimmed.

Paper, Google Tasks, Excel, or an app: which format for which list

The format matters less than the two missing columns, but it matters. Each format is good at one of the three lists and poor at the others. Pick by the job, not by the look. Whoever wants all three lists and the calendar in one place can set up a digital planner with a page for each.

Where is your to-do list in Google? In Google Tasks, which lives in the right-hand side panel of Gmail and Google Calendar and in the Tasks app on Android and iOS. Keep is the other option, with checklists inside notes. Both capture well. Neither asks why. A to-do list in Excel takes four columns, task, size, day, and status, with a filter on the day column so Monday shows only Monday. Excel's checkbox cells or a data validation list for the status column make the checking off feel like checking off. That is the whole build. In short: the tool holds the list. It does not make the decisions. The guide to choosing a to-do list app compares seven of them against clear criteria.

Daily to-do lists, weekly to-do lists, master list: three lists, three jobs

One list cannot do three jobs, and the attempt is why most to-do lists hold 60 items. The master list stores. The weekly list chooses. The daily list executes. They are written at different times, by different rules, and they are different lengths.

The weekly list is the hinge. Without it the daily list is picked from the master list each morning, and the master list has no opinion about what matters. With it, each evening's choice is made from twelve items instead of 60. Anyone who already runs a weekly review has the weekly list half built: the one thing that counts next week is the first line, and the to-do list hangs underneath it.

What about people who say lists do not work for them? They are usually right about the list they have. A single list that holds appointments, projects, someday ideas, and today's tasks does not work for anyone. It is not a to-do list. It is four lists in one file, and the fix is to separate them, not to try harder.

The to-do list in the goal chain: from a yearly goal to Tuesday evening

Every task on Maya's Tuesday list traces upward. Send the outline serves the paper draft, which is the October goal. The paper draft serves the fall quarter: two courses passed and 100 practicum hours logged. The quarter serves the year: degree finished by May, application filed. That is the goal chain, year to quarter to month to week to day, and a to-do list is its bottom rung. Anyone who can trace a task to the top has the reason column already filled in. Anyone who cannot is holding either a chore or a cut.

In Gaapp this chain is the structure. A daily goal hangs under a weekly goal, the weekly goal under a monthly one, and the progress of each level is the share of its items checked off. A to-do list item without a parent stands out there, because it has nothing to hang from. That is the question the reason column asks on paper, built into the layout. Chores still exist. The dentist still happens. They go on the calendar, not into the chain.

How you get from a yearly goal to a monthly one is covered in the guide to annual planning. How you phrase a daily item so it can be checked off at 9 p.m. is the subject of the piece on daily goals. The pillar on how to achieve goals puts the whole chain together. The to-do list is the smallest part of it, and the part you touch every day.

Couples and teams run the same chain with shared lists. The rule does not change: three must-dos per person per day, each tied to a goal the group agreed on, closed every evening. A shared list with 80 items is a shared inventory. A shared list with six is a plan for two people.

Three questions before you write tomorrow's list

Three questions, about the list you have right now:

• Can you say, for every item on it, what it serves?
• Does every item have a verb and a size, so you would know when it is done?
• Was the list closed last night, with every leftover given a day or cut?

Anyone who answers no to one of the three does not have a motivation problem. They have an inventory. The fix is 25 minutes on Sunday and five each evening, and the first Sunday is the hardest, because that is when the 41 items come out. In short: a to-do list is not a record of what you owe. It is a decision about what tomorrow is for, made the night before, three items long.

Frequently asked questions about to-do lists