November 3, 2025
How I use my todo list
A fellow list member who wished to remain anonymous wrote in to ask:
Would love to hear how you organize your todo list and make sure things actually get done!
Great question!
Perhaps surprisingly, it does not have a simple answer.
My todo list is the #3 most important component of my daily “operating system”, but it is by far the most nuanced.
Here’s the 30,000-foot view:
- I do not separate business and personal todos. If there’s something I want to get done, it goes on the list.
- The moment I decide I want to do something, I put it on the list. The longer I wait to put it on the list, the more likely it is that I will forget to put it on the list. (And if it doesn’t go on the list, I will definitely never do it.)
- I only put things on the list that I would forget to do otherwise. For example, I don’t need to put “walk the dogs” on my list because the dogs have their own built-in reminder mechanism (i.e., dragging me to the back door by my pant leg)
- The tasks I put on my list are straightforward and phrased as commands, like “Send daily email” or “Floss teeth” or “Reply to Liz about podcast interview”.
- If the todo has related supporting documents (e.g., an email thread, a web page, a Google doc, etc...) I include the link right in the todo so that as soon as I’m ready to do the thing, I can just click the link and dive right in without having to hunt all over the place (and probably getting sidetracked).
- Similar to the preceding point, if the todo is something like “Call the vet” I’ll put the phone number right in the todo so I don’t have to search for it when I’m ready to do the thing.
- I have a fair number of recurring todos. Some daily (10), some weekly (8), some monthly (11), and some annually (4). These recurring todos are my secret weapon for maintaining a high level of output without having any recognizable routine whatsoever.
- I have a fairly small number of non-recurring todos (6) that have dates attached to them. (NOTE: these are NOT due dates. More on that tomorrow.) These are one-off items that need to get done in the near future, but don’t recur on a predictable schedule (e.g., “Get a wedding present for Tim”)
- I have a crap ton of todos (576) that have no dates on them. I keep these on a separate “Maybe Someday” list, which is where I put stuff 1) I don’t want to forget, but 2) I don’t intend to work on in the foreseeable future. It’s very important that these low-priority items aren’t on my active todo list, because I would get distracted by them and never get anything important done.
I could go on and on, but that’s probably enough for now.
Next time, I’ll explain why I don’t use due dates on todos (and what I do instead).
Yours,
—J