There's no magic bullet, you have to put some effort to maintain your todo list. Years ago, I naively thought that I could come up with an algorithm that would

There's no magic bullet, you have to put some effort to maintain your todo list. Years ago, I naively thought that I could come up with an algorithm that would prioritize tasks for me based on a formula and I'd have to open my app and it would tell me what to do. No such luck. I've been using GTD with great luck. The short version is: - everything that you have/want/need to do goes into the inbox. - inbox gets periodically reviewed. At this point you must ask yourself "do I need to do this". I made the mistake of dropping YouTube links and various other links into my inbox. Don't do this as it increases the cognitive load of processing your inbox. Be honest with yourself if this is something you wish to do or need to do. if it's only a wish that you'll never act upon delete it. If you can't delete it, stick it into a "later" file. If this is a must do, stick it into an appropriate category ("House tasks", "Project work" etc). - periodically review all your projects. Be honest with yourself here as well. Are you going to do this or did it slip past your "Do I need to do this?" filter. The inbox gets rid of anxiety, trying to remember everything. I can't stress enough about reviewing your task list and throwing out things you're not likely to do.