There seems to be a common theme of people using some form of task management for home but the systems not being very effective. I've experimented a lot myself

There seems to be a common theme of people using some form of task management for home but the systems not being very effective. I've experimented a lot myself and have a few thoughts on the matter that might help someone. The most essential factor is buy-in and commitment: both buy-in with those that you live with (wife, roommates, etc) and, perhaps more importantly, buy-in with yourself. You'll need to really commit to any system for it to be effective. A successful general productivity strategy is in learning the signs of tasks that will never get done versus ones that will. The key attribute of a task that seem to sit in the todo list forever is when a task is actually a project in disguise. Many times we have something like "Plan vacation", "Build deck" or "File taxes" in our todo list which are all projects rather than tasks. When you notice this, put the project on your list of projects and then define the next immediate task that you can do to make progress on this project. For example, for "Plan vacation" a task might be "Schedule dates for trip" or for "Build deck" a task might be "Make measurements of deck". Focus on the most minimal next step to push the project forward. This forces you to think of the project in stages that are all independently easy to reason about and schedule. The current incarnation of my at home todo list is as follows: 4'x3' metal board (galvanized Steel from hardware store) and magnetic whiteboard squares (find them on Amazon as sheets and cut up to size) representing tasks. These adhere very well and are reusable (less in the landfill). I break my board into 4 kanban board style columns that should sound familiar to most: icebox, backlog, today and done. Icebox holds items I'd like to do but don't have immediate plans on. Often things are a bit vague at that stage or they are projects waiting to be turned into tasks. Backlog has tasks that I'm committing to do for the current sprint (one week long, from Monday to Monday). I don't allow any new items into backlog unless truly critical until the next sprint. Each sprint I sit down and prioritize my goals for the week and look at my icebox. I try and choose a combination of things I am excited about and things I'm not excited about. I take any tasks that are vague and break them down into something I can do within 30m-1hr. If the task is too vague/big I know I probably won't do it. Once my backlog is filled for the sprint, I plan what I'm doing each day of the sprint in the morning. I take into account work priorities, meetings, etc and put items I'm committing to do today into the list. I attempt to work in a pomodoro style with 25m working and a 5m break. I make sure to take a real break, usually some quick meditation or exercise/stretching. The key is to step away and clear your mind. This prevents getting stuck in a rabbit hole with a given task. I record a tick on each card for every pomodoro I do against it. As I resolve items I move them into done. If I move things into done that have a lot of ticks on them (eg they were big tasks) I see it as a sign that I didn't plan sufficiently and need to break things up more effectively in the future. At the end of the sprint I recap on what I've done and not done and make any mental notes of things to change. Perhaps most importantly I go through the list and celebrate all that got done. This is effective in having a healthy perspective on the progress I've made. This system has been very effective in making real progress on things I typically procrastinate on including home repair, side projects and chores. This system has been so effective I actually do it for personal and work items and mix the two together throughout the day (I work from home so this is easy for me to do). The key to making any system like this work is to commit to enforcing the process in yourself and to be constantly aware of when you're slipping and make adjustments. Also, it's important to see any such process as a living, breathing thing that will always need changes and tweaks to be optimally effective. One last bit that you could throw in the mix is to plan to release one thing every sprint to the world. I've been focused on launching one of my side projects each week and so far I've actually launched things that have been on my wish list for months.