The ADHD to-do list: how to make one you will actually use

Why ordinary to-do lists fail with ADHD

• They are too long. A long list is a long menu, and more options make people less likely to choose.¹ It also sets off dread, and overwhelm leads to avoiding the list.
• The items are vague. "Taxes" and "Mom's birthday" are topics, not actions. Each one needs planning before you can start, and planning is the part ADHD makes harder.²
• Everything looks equally important. A deadline sits next to "buy toothpaste" in the same font.
• The list is somewhere else. If you have to remember to look at it, working memory is doing the job the list was meant to do.³
• Nothing tells you how long things take. So you plan twelve tasks for a day that holds four.⁴
• It punishes you. Yesterday's unfinished items sit at the top, usually in red.

The three-list method

1. Today: three to five tasks

   This is the only list you look at while working. Three is a good default. Five is the ceiling. If something new and urgent arrives, it replaces a task. It does not get added.

2. Later: everything else

   Every other task and idea lives here, out of sight. It is not a backlog you are behind on. It is a storage shelf. Writing something here is what lets you stop thinking about it: unfinished goals stop intruding once you have a plan for them.⁵

3. Done: the proof

   Keep finished tasks where you can see them. On a day that felt like nothing happened, this list says otherwise. That matters when your own memory of the day is unkind.

Today4 tasks · 1 hr 5 min

• Now✉️Reply to Sam about the invoice15 min
• 3:07📞Call the dentist10 min
• 3:17💻Fix the login bug25 min
• 3:42🧺Start the laundry15 min
• All done around 3:57 PM

How to write a task

A well-written task can be started without thinking. It has three parts:

1. A verb. Call, write, send, open, book, pay.
2. A specific object. Who or what, exactly.
3. A time estimate. Even a rough one. Then add half again.

For anything you are avoiding, add a fourth part: the first step, small enough to do in two minutes.

The second list is longer to write and far easier to do.

A two-minute routine, twice a day

• Morning: move three tasks from Later to Today. Add up the times. If you would finish after your day ends, take one off.
• Evening: look at Done. For anything left on Today, decide: tomorrow, or back to Later. No task is "overdue". It simply has a new day.

More on this in how to plan your day with ADHD.

Paper or app?

A common mix: a sticky note for Today, and an app for Later.

What to look for in an ADHD to-do list app

The same things as on paper, plus what software can add:

• A separate, short Today view that hides everything else.
• Capture in one action from wherever you are.
• It shows itself: on your home screen, your new tab or the page you are on.
• Time estimates and a finish time.
• Help breaking tasks down.
• No overdue shaming.

Our guide to choosing an ADHD task management app has a two-minute test for each of these, and the comparison names specific apps.

Mistakes that bring the old list back

• Letting Today grow. When it reaches eight items, it is the old list again.
• Looking at Later during the day. It is for mornings and evenings.
• Several lists in several places. One Today. One Later.
• Rewriting the list as a way to avoid it. A plain list that gets used beats a beautiful one that does not.
• Starting a new system after a bad week. The system was probably fine. See how to get back on track.

How NoRush does the three lists

We make NoRush, a to-do list for Chrome that is built this way from the start:

• Today, Later and Done are its three lists. Today shows five tasks at most. Later and Done are folded away.
• Every new tab shows one task from Today, with its next step. A bubble keeps it on every website.
• Type a time at the end of a task, like "call the dentist 10m", and it becomes the estimate. The list shows when you would finish.
• Breakdown writes the first steps for you.
• "Not today" moves a task to Later without judgement. There is no overdue.