A long to-do list can feel like a weight. Everything on it looks equally urgent, and the day ends with more on the list than when it started.
This is a simpler way. A short list for the day, written the evening before or first thing in the morning, with everything else parked somewhere safe. It takes a few minutes. It is easy to keep going.
The method
- Set aside a few minutes at the end of the day, or first thing in the morning.
- Write a short Today list. Only the few things that deserve your attention now. Three is a good place to start.
- Move anything that matters, but not today, to Next.
- Put ideas and nice to haves on Someday, so they are out of your head but not lost.
- Keep the Today list where you can see it. Work through it. Tomorrow, start fresh.
That is all. No apps, no colour coding, no system to maintain. The value is in the small daily act of choosing.
Why writing a plan down helps
Unfinished tasks have a way of following us around. Psychologists E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister looked at this in a set of studies published in 2011 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. As their abstract describes, unfinished goals led to intrusive thoughts during an unrelated reading task and poorer performance on an unrelated word puzzle.
The interesting part came next. When participants were allowed to make specific plans for those unfinished goals, these effects disappeared. How earnestly people made their plans mattered too. The goal was not finished yet, but having a clear plan seemed to let the mind set it down for a while.
A larger body of research points the same way. Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran reviewed studies on implementation intentions, which are plans that spell out when, where and how you will act. In their 2006 meta analysis of 94 independent tests, forming these plans had a medium to large effect on people reaching goals they already intended to pursue.
A daily card is a light version of the same idea. You are deciding, ahead of time, what today is for.
Evening or morning
Both work. Choose the one you are more likely to keep.
If you like to plan the evening before, there is a small study you may find interesting. Researchers at Baylor University and Emory University asked 57 healthy young adults, aged 18 to 30, to spend five minutes writing before bed in a sleep lab. Half wrote a to-do list for the next few days. Half wrote about tasks they had already completed. According to the published abstract, the to-do list group fell asleep significantly faster, and the more specific their lists, the faster they fell asleep.
It was one small study in healthy young adults. The researchers noted they do not know whether the findings would apply to people with insomnia. Still, it is a nice reason to close the laptop with a short list for tomorrow.
If mornings suit you better, write the card with your first coffee, before the inbox opens. The point is to decide before the day decides for you.
Why Today, Next and Someday
A single list mixes everything together. Splitting it three ways keeps each part honest.
- Today is short on purpose. If it does not fit, it is not for today.
- Next keeps what is coming in view, without crowding the day.
- Someday gives good ideas a place to wait. You can let them go for now, knowing where to find them.
Each evening or morning, glance at Next and Someday. Bring forward what is ready. Leave the rest.
Keeping it on paper
Paper works well for this. A single card has a natural limit, and it sits in plain sight on the desk, rather than hiding behind a tab.
The Daily Cards are built around exactly this method. Each pack has 50 cards: 35 Today, 10 Next and 5 Someday. That is about one month of daily use. They are 3 by 5 inch, on 100 lb card stock with rounded corners, and rigid enough to stand in a compatible holder.
To keep today's card in view, The Note Card Holder is a small wooden piece, 10 cm wide, that holds one card upright. Write the card, stand it up, and let the rest of the desk stay quiet.
Sources
- Masicampo and Baumeister, Consider It Done: Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011. Unfinished goals caused intrusive thoughts and poorer task performance; making specific plans eliminated these effects.
- Gollwitzer and Sheeran, Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta Analysis of Effects and Processes, 2006. Across 94 independent tests, when, where and how plans had a medium to large effect on goal attainment.
- Scullin and colleagues, The Effects of Bedtime Writing on Difficulty Falling Asleep, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2018. 57 healthy young adults; writing a to-do list before bed was followed by faster sleep onset than writing about completed tasks.
- Baylor University, Can Writing Your To-Dos Help You to Doze. Study details and the researchers' note that results may not apply to people with insomnia.