What happens to your todo list over time? Does it grow, shrink, remain the same?
Do you feel like you know what you're supposed to do right now? Do you feel able to execute the items? Do you end up doing those tasks you listed?
Do you feel you have structure? Or otherwise what do you feel is blocking you from being productive as you were expecting to be?
My notepad fast and works a little
There is no magic to it tho
I hope to fix that when I release my own Todo app in January, Never.
In practice, I may have three or more to-do items that I could choose between working on now, with roughly similar priority levels. That can cause analysis paralysis, though this can be mitigated by arbitrarily choosing one to work on.
>What happens to your todo list over time?
I don't worry about the length of the to-do list. The important part is that it captures everything I need to do at some point, along with ideas of potential tasks. It roughly stays the same, though sometimes it can balloon, and some days it decreases. I don't aim for it to reach zero, as I will never run out of work to do.
>Do you feel like you know what you're supposed to do right now?
Yes, though I don't use a to-do list for figuring out what to work on right now. Instead, I use a daily schedule designed from the to-do list. The purpose of a to-do list is just to capture tasks, versus scheduling them.
>Do you feel able to execute the items?
Yes, though when I don't, I break them down into tiny steps to work on them progressively ('Little Steps' method from Feeling Good, a book by psychiatrist Dr. David Burns).
>Do you end up doing those tasks you listed?
I eventually do them. Sometimes I delete them if tasks are no longer relevant, especially with housekeeping tasks or ideas related to hobbies.
>Do you feel you have structure?
I actively try to maximize the structure in my days, via scheduling and writing steps out on sticky notes.
>Or otherwise what do you feel is blocking you from being productive as you were expecting to be?
The biggest reason is lack of sleep, or sleeping too late, which makes it difficult to concentrate. Easy internet access can also be distracting, especially when tasks are unfamiliar or unexpectedly difficult, though I'm working to minimize this.
Great questions to consider. If you want to get to-do lists working for you, I would recommend keeping them as a repository of tasks; adding deadlines to tasks in whichever task management system you use (I use Things 3, though this could also work on Apple's Reminders and Microsoft's ToDo); checking this task list with deadlines at the start of each day, then converting it to a schedule; and generally scheduling time for every to-do. I find that spare time where I'm energized to work on tasks is hard to come by, so scheduling is important.
I would also recommend breaking down difficult to-dos into as many simple steps as possible. In addition, try to sleep well and exercise regularly, which makes concentration much easier and improves your life experience.