Weekly Lists

Similar to what Kepano said, The only to-dos method that has worked for me is weekly lists:

Every week I make a weekly note, and write my to-dos for the week. I may add more items to it during the week.

If any items didn’t get done I roll them over to the next weekly note or drop them.

On Monday, or sometimes on Sunday before the week, I write down all my upcoming tasks and things to take care of in the upcoming week. I usually have a checkbox list in my physical notebook and divide it into an initial list of important tasks, with the most important one on top. Then divide it by the admin list below, which includes less important administrative tasks to send out invoices or handle.

I liked separating them so I can see my main work tasks in one list and assess how much they take me.

Also, sometimes it’s hard to start (see Ultradian Rhythm), so I just take a short admin task to start, that doesn’t require much brain power, and then it’s easier to me to get into the flow and feel “wow I already have finished two tasks” and continue to tackle the bigger once above.

I also have My Todos list digitally. The difference here is that I add tasks that I remember during work to quickly note down (I have a shortcut with space + space in Obsidian and Neovim to access this exact note quickly - see Open-Specific Files with Obsidian and Neovim) a task or important thing that came to mind.

This is more of an addition, and usually these tasks are much smaller and less important. The important tasks are on paper.

Origin: Todos
References: How I write Daily Notes differently