Todo lists are tools, like a hammer. Hammers can be used to end life, but also to build houses. The tool is rarely good or bad in itself, but either suitable or

Todo lists are tools, like a hammer. Hammers can be used to end life, but also to build houses. The tool is rarely good or bad in itself, but either suitable or unsuitable to do a certain job. In my experience, todo lists are suitable for keeping you focused on a set of tasks. However, they seem not so good are being a complete system of task scheduling. Over time they often fill up and have no clearly defined mechanism of clearing not-so-relevant-anymore tasks. Therefore, I create a new todo list every day. First, I write down what I think, that I will get done today. Second I take a look at yesterdays list and decide for every open task if I will get it done today or if it should go to the backlog or graveyard. As the final step I look at the backlog, but mostly decide to just go with the list I already have. This procedure helps me to focus and get daily tasks done. What it doesn't support is prioritization. To accomplish that I tend to reflect every few weeks on what I should be doing more and what I should be doing less and changing my calendar accordingly. So I use todo lists primarily for daily focus, instead of expecting them to solve hard priority issues.