Building Your Productivity System: Backlogs and Daily Todo Lists

1. Understanding Executive Function: What It Is and Why It Matters

2. The Zoom Out, Zoom In Dance: A Foundation for Better Productivity

3. Task Analysis: Slicing the Bread Loaf

4. The Art of Prioritization: Deciding What Matters Now

5. The Daily Aiming Ritual: Putting Prioritization into Practice

In my previous posts (linked above), I introduced the concept of executive function, explored why it is best to separate planning from execution with the "Zoom Out, Zoom In Dance," discussed how to break down complex projects with "Task Analysis," explored different useful prioritization frameworks, and shared the Daily Aiming Ritual. Today, I want to focus on a fundamental infrastructure question: where do you actually store all these tasks, projects, and priorities?

This post explores two essential components of any productivity system: Backlogs (which are containers for projects and not-yet-executed tasks) and Daily Todo Lists (which are temporary artifacts you create to focus and structure your task execution on a given day). Implementing Backlogs and Daily Todo Lists, and doing so in a way that works with rather than against your brain, will transform how you manage your workday.

The Two-Level System: Planning vs. Execution

Your brain is not built to simultaneously engage in planning and execution. Planning benefits from your ability to survey a wide-rang of things that might be important for you to work on. This is to say, planning benefits from your brain being Zoomed Out. However, when you are executing on a specific task, your attention necessarily narrows and focuses towards only what is important to consider about that task. This is to say, execution benefits from your brain being Zoomed In. If you try to create a plan while your attention is Zoomed In you are likely to miss things that you'll recognize were important later on. Likewise, if you try to execute a task while your brain is Zoomed Out, you are likely to have difficulty maintaining focus. In a very literal way, planning and execution are each best supported by fundamentally different cognitive modes that directly conflict with one another. Your brain's Default Mode Network is best suited to planning, while your brain's Task Positive Network is best suited to execution.

Because your brain works best when you keep planning and execution activities separated, it is best to structure your planning system in a way that respects this separation. A two-level planning system works best:

1. Backlogs serve as organized containers where you describe and store all of your projects and not-yet-executed tasks. They are spaces where projects and not-yet-executed tasks can rest securely until you are ready to execute them. Projects and tasks that are securely stored in backlogs will not get in your way when you are executing on other tasks.

2. Daily Todo Lists are temporary artifacts, ideally created anew each day which contain a carefully selected subset of tasks drawn from your backlogs which you have specifically chosen for execution today, based on your current priorities, energy level, and available time.

Backlogs support the "Zoomed Out" planning mode I discussed in the "Zoom Out, Zoom In Dance" post, while daily todo lists support the "Zoomed In" execution mode.

Understanding Backlogs: Your Project and Task Containers

Since backlogs serve as containers for projects and not-yet-executed tasks, it's important to consider how to arrange them effectively to maintain organization.

Each backlog needs to be recorded in some fashion. You can use different mediums to do this recording - digital devices or computers, physical paper journals or notebooks, or a combination of both.

You don't need to choose only one means of keeping your organization system! Instead you can create a hybrid system that best works for you. For instance, you might use digital tools to maintain your backlogs, and physical artifacts when creating your daily todo lists.

The medium you choose should depend on your specific needs:

Digital Backlogs offer excellent search capabilities, synchronization across devices, and unlimited space to describe projects and tasks. They work well for people who need to access their system from multiple locations, have large numbers of tasks to manage, benefit from automated reminders, and who are comfortable with digital tools.

Physical Backlogs provide tangible, visible organization with reduced digital distractions. They work well for people who find digital tools distracting, benefit from the kinesthetic experience of writing, or benefit from the physical presence of visual reminders.

You can have one or more backlogs in your system. Think of individual backlogs as organized containers that keep like things separated. Just as you might have separate areas in your closet for work clothes, casual clothes, and athletic gear, each separate backlog functions as a distinct space where you can store projects and tasks that belong together.

Many people find it best to have a few distinct backlogs, each serving as a specific container for projects and tasks belonging to a specific domain of one's life. An alternative approach is to create a different backlog for each major project you are working on. However, be careful if you decide to go this latter route! It's easy to accumulate backlogs and hard to reduce their number. During your Daily Aiming Ritual one of the things you'll be doing is to survey all of your backlogs looking to identify tasks contained in each that should be executed today. The more backlogs you have, the harder and more involved your daily planning becomes!

How Many Backlogs Do You Need?

I generally recommend starting with just 2 or 3 backlogs based on major life domains. For many people, this might look like:

• Work/Professional Backlog

• Home/Personal Backlog

• (Optional) Learning/Educational Backlog

Within each backlog, you can create further organization through tags, folders, or categories—but keeping the number of top-level backlogs minimal reduces the difficulty of deciding where to store tasks.

Jason, a product manager I work with, initially created separate backlogs for each of his work projects, plus several distinct personal categories. He found himself constantly unsure where to put cross-functional tasks, and spent more time maintaining his system than doing actual work. When we simplified his backlogs down to just two, one for Work and one for his Personal life, his system became much more sustainable.

Task Analysis Lives in Your Backlogs, Not Your Daily Lists

The task analysis process I described in my previous post happens within your backlogs, not on your daily todo lists. Doing task analysis within your backlogs helps you keep planning and execution modes separated and ease the process of creating your Daily Todo Lists.

• Backlogs are where you break down projects into component tasks, analyze dependencies, and organize work into actionable chunks

• Daily Todo Lists are constructed by selecting already-broken-down and not-yet-executed tasks from your backlogs for execution today

David, a product designer I work with, initially tried doing task analysis and execution simultaneously. He would start his day by trying to figure out what to do and how to break it down, all at once. This approach overwhelmed him. When we separated these functions by having him first doing a task analysis during dedicated planning sessions within his backlogs and only then having him select pre-analyzed tasks from his backlogs into his daily list his productivity improved dramatically.

What Makes an Effective Backlog?

An effective backlog has several key characteristics:

1. Comprehensive but Contained: The backlog should include all tasks related to its (life or project) domain, but be clearly bounded to prevent it from becoming unwieldy and hard to work with.

2. Well-Organized: Tasks in a backlog should be grouped logically, whether by project, context, energy level required, or other meaningful dimension.

3. Regularly Maintained: Like any organizational system, backlogs need periodic cleaning and updating to remain useful.

4. Accessible but Not Distracting: You should be able to easily add to and review your backlogs. They should not constantly demand or distract your attention during execution mode.

5. Trusted: Perhaps most importantly, you must trust that tasks placed in your backlog won't be lost or forgotten. Ensuring that new tasks are properly added to one of your backlogs and adequately described and categorized helps you relax and allows your mind to stop thinking about those new tasks so that you can focus only on what is important while executing another task.

Backlog Maintenance: The Backlog Refinement Ritual

Over time, backlogs naturally become cluttered with outdated, incomplete, or inadequately specified tasks. This entropy is inevitable and requires periodic maintenance to keep your organizational system functional.

For instance, as you record or capture new projects or tasks throughout your day, you need to be regularly assigning them to their appropriate backlog. Additionally, you'll likely find that existing tasks already in your backlogs no longer make sense and require clarification, updating, or reorganization.

Backlog maintenance can happen in two ways:

1. Opportunistic refinement of your backlogs can occur during your Daily Aiming Ritual, at which time you can notice and fix issues with individual tasks as you encounter them

2. The Backlog Refinement Ritual offers a more regular and systematic means of cleaning, updating, and reorganizing your backlogs

I generally recommend that you scheduling a Backlog Refinement Ritual to occur weekly or bi-weekly, depending on how quickly your system tends to get cluttered. For most people, a 30-60 minute session occuring every two weeks will provide sufficient maintenance to keep your backlogs well organized and useful without becoming a maintenance burden.

Everyday Refinement Tactics

When conducting your periodic Backlog Refinement Ritual, these tactics can help make the process more efficient:

1. The "Three Piles" Approach: Sort tasks into "Keep," "Delete," and "Clarify" categories as a first pass. This creates momentum by quickly identifying items that need no further attention versus those requiring more work.

2. The "2-Minute Touch" Rule: For each backlog item, spend no more than 2 minutes deciding its fate. This prevents you from getting stuck in perfectionism while still allowing for enough attention so that you end up making thoughtful decisions. If a task requires more than 2 minutes to clarify, flag it and come back later to give it deeper attention.

Knowing When Deeper Refinement Is Needed

While regular maintenance keeps your organizational system functional, occasionally you'll need a more comprehensive overhaul. Here are signs that a deeper refinement of your system is warranted:

1. Increasing Task Avoidance: When you find yourself consciously avoiding your backlog system, it often signals that deeper maintenance is needed.

2. Recurrent Selection of Wrong Tasks: If you keep selecting tasks that don't actually move important projects forward, your backlog may need reorganization.

3. Difficulty Finding Things: When you know a task exists but you struggle to locate it in your backlog, or when you keep recreating and duplicating tasks that are already in your backlog.

4. Feeling Disconnected from Projects: If your backlog no longer accurately represents your current goals and commitments it is time for deeper cleaning.

5. After Significant Life or Work Changes: Major transitions like new jobs, relationship changes, or shifts in responsibilities should prompt you to take a careful look at your backlogs to see if they still reflect your priorities.

Less Frequent Refinement Tactics

Roughly once a month or once a quarter you'll likely want to engage in deeper backlog review and maintenance. At such times you'll engage in more thorough cleaning, organizing, and restating of projects and tasks in your backlogs. Consider these more comprehensive approaches when doing so:

1. The "Fresh Eyes" Technique: Start reviewing from the bottom of the backlog (looking at the oldest items) rather than the top. This helps you evaluate long-standing items from a fresh perspective. Ask yourself, do you still need this project or task to go forward?

2. The "Project Health Check": Review all of your projects rather than the individual tasks associated with those projects first. In this way you can more quickly identify projects that may be stalled or no longer relevant.

3. The "Task Aging" Strategy: Look only at those tasks that have still not been executed after a certain period of time has elapsed (e.g., 3 months without action) and give these tasks special scrutiny.

Carlos, an executive who had multiple competing priorities he was trying to juggle, blocked off 45 minutes every other Friday afternoon during which time he engaged in his Backlog Refinement Ritual. He described it as "pulling weeds and pruning overgrowth", and offered that in this fashion he was better able to insure that the projects and tasks that were most important got the attention they needed to flourish despite his busy schedule. Though this regular maintenance required precious time, it paid for itself by helping Carlos stick to his organization system rather than abandoning it as he had done in the past.

Daily Todo Lists: Your Focused Execution Plan

While backlogs contain everything you might want to do eventually but haven't yet gotten around to doing, daily todo lists represent your intentional decisions about what tasks you should focus on today and in what order you should execute them.

The Purpose of Daily Todo Lists

Daily todo lists serve several vital functions:

1. Focus Guidance: They direct your attention to what matters most today

2. Decision Offloading: They prevent repeated and cognitively expensive decision-making about what you should work on next

3. Completion Tracking: They provide a clear record of your progress

4. Boundary Creation: They establish realistic limits for how much you can get done in a single day

5. Transition Support: They help you bridge the gap between your planning and execution modes

The Integrated View: Drawing from Multiple Backlogs

An important aspect of the Daily Aiming Ritual is that you iterate across all your backlogs when creating your daily todo list. This creates an integrated daily view that pulls tasks from different life domains for execution today based on your current priorities.

For example, your daily todo list might include:

• A critical work presentation (from your Work backlog)

• Scheduling a doctor's appointment (from your Personal backlog)

• 30 minutes of reading a professional development book (from your Education backlog)

This integration reflects the reality of your day. Your day likely spans time spent at work and at home. Your daily todo list can and should reflect this diversity.

Melissa, a healthcare professional with complex family responsibilities, found the creation of an integrated daily todo list that drew tasks for execution from across her life domains to be particularly valuable. "Before, I had separate systems for work and home, which meant I was constantly context-switching between lists," she explained. "Now I run through all my backlogs during my morning planning ritual and create one integrated daily list. This helps me identify conflicts and make better decisions about how to allocate my limited time and energy across all my responsibilities."

Creating Effective Daily Todo Lists

Your daily todo list is created during the Daily Aiming Ritual as you review your backlogs. This review process might also be a time when task analysis occurs, at which time you can break down larger projects into smaller, actionable steps as needed. Through the Aiming Ritual you produce your daily todo list, which list helps you transition from the planning phase (where you manage your backlogs) to the execution phase (where you create your focused daily todo list). Once you have your daily todo list created you are ready to get started executing your daily tasks.

During the Daily Aiming Ritual, you create your daily todo list by selecting tasks from your backlogs based on prioritization frameworks, available time and energy, dependencies between tasks, and balance across different life domains.

An effective daily todo list has several key characteristics:

1. Realistically Sized: It contains only those tasks you can actually accomplish in one day (more or less)

2. Clearly Defined: Each task in your daily todo list should have a specific definition of "done" so that you know when to stop

3. Appropriately Detailed: The tasks on your daily todo list are broken down into actionable steps or are self-evidently clear

4. Priority-Aware: The most important tasks on your daily todo list are highlighted or place first in the sequence of tasks on your list

5. Available When Needed: The daily todo list needs to be easily accessible throughout your execution phase so that you don't get disoriented from your plan

Sarah, a marketing professional with ADHD, would regularly create daily lists containing 15-20 tasks, then feel defeated when she inevitably completed only 4-5 of those tasks. We worked together to implement a "Rule of 3" for her daily lists: identifying just three priority tasks that would make the day successful, plus a few optional "bonus" items if her time and energy permitted her to do more. This approach dramatically increased both Sarah's task completion rate and also her sense of accomplishment.

Daily Lists Are Guidelines, Not Contracts

Daily todo lists are temporary artifacts that you recreate each day. They are orienting tools, not binding contracts with yourself. They exist to guide your focus, not to generate shame or disappointment in the event that you don't get everything done.

It's completely normal and expected that on many days, you won't finish everything on your list. Life happens, tasks take longer than expected, energy fluctuates, and new priorities emerge. It's not a failure when this happens. It's just the reality of working.

When tasks on your daily todo list don't get completed, they can simply be returned to your backlog to be reconsidered during your next Aiming Ritual. There should hopefully not be any penalty or judgment or shame attached to this process of reassigning tasks that didn't get done.

Marcus, a software developer I work with, initially struggled with intense shame about his incomplete tasks. "I felt like I was breaking promises to myself every time I didn't finish my list," he told me. We reframed his daily list as a navigation tool to guide his execution path and help him stay oriented rather than a performance contract or measure of his worth or competence. This reframing dramatically reduced Marcus' anxiety and, ironically, ended up also improving his task completion rate by removing the emotional burden of shame that had been interfering with his focus.

Physical vs. Digital Daily Lists

As with backlogs, the medium or manner in which you store your daily todo lists matters, though the considerations are somewhat different than for backlogs:

Digital Daily Todo Lists work well for people who need flexibility to make quick adjustments throughout the day, who benefit from integration of their todo list with their calendar appointments, who want automated tracking of completion rates, or already have strong digital skills.

Physical Daily Todo Lists work well for people who want the sensory satisfaction of physically checking completed tasks off their list, who benefit from having visual reminders outside their devices, who find that the act of writing helps them to commit, or who are easily distracted when they open digital tools.

Marina, a software engineer with attention challenges, discovered that while digital storage worked well for keeping backlogs, she benefited from keeping her daily todo lists on a physical piece of paper. "Something about writing my task priorities on a sticky note and putting it on my monitor creates a different relationship with those tasks," she explained. "When they're just digital items, they feel optional. When I've physically written them down, they feel like real commitments."

Connecting Backlogs and Daily Lists: The Flow of Tasks

Understanding how tasks flow between backlogs and daily lists is essential for maintaining a functional system. Here is what the typical workflow looks like:

1. Capture: New tasks enter your system and are assigned to their appropriate backlog

2. Organization: During planning sessions, you organize and maintain your backlogs

3. Task Analysis: During backlog maintenance or the Daily Aiming Ritual, you break down complex projects into actionable tasks

4. Selection: During your Daily Aiming Ritual, you select appropriate tasks from across your backlogs for your daily list

5. Execution: You work exclusively from your daily todo list during execution mode

6. Completion & Processing: Completed tasks are checked off on your daily todo list, whereas any incomplete tasks at the end of the day are returned to their backlogs where they can be reassigned during the next Daily Aiming Ritual

It's crucial to remember that the daily todo list is a temporary artifact. It exists for one day and one day only. It should be recreated fresh each day during your Daily Aiming Ritual. Doing it this way respects that your priorities change frequently and that as this happens, your task execution plan also needs to change so that at all times your daily todo list contains the tasks that matter today.

Implementation Challenges and Solutions

I've observed clients experience several common challenges when implementing the two-level Backlogs + Daily Todo List system:

Challenge 1: Forgetting to Check Backlogs

Solution: Build backlog review directly into your Daily Aiming Ritual as a non-negotiable step. Create physical or digital reminders that prompt this review. If you need to, set a recurring daily reminder that reminds you to check all backlogs before assigning tasks to your daily todo list. Alternatively, create a flow-chart or check-list that helps you do each important planning step in sequence. Do this until the habit of always checking all your backlogs became automatic.

Challenge 2: Too Many Backlogs

Solution: Conduct a backlog audit and consolidate your excess backlogs. Merge related backlogs. Use tags, categories, or sections within your remaining backlogs to maintain your organization.

Challenge 3: Overloaded Daily Lists

Solution: Implement strict limits on how many tasks you're allowed to put on your daily todo list. The "Rule of 3" works well for many clients. Identify just three priority tasks for the day, with perhaps 2-3 additional "bonus" items that you can work on but only if time permits. If you keep a physical todo list, consider using a smaller piece of paper which won't hold as many tasks to keep you from overloading your daily todo list.

Challenge 4: "List Anxiety"

Solution: Implement regular backlog maintenance rituals to keep your backlogs manageable. Practice grounding exercises before doing backlog maintenance. For instance, practicing a brief breathing routine before begining the work. Take three deep breaths while reminding yourself, "These are just possibilities, not obligations. I get to choose what matters now."

Challenge 5: System Maintenance Fatigue

Solution: Schedule regular but time-limited backlog maintenance sessions, and simplify your system wherever possible. Even a short 15 minute inspection of your backlogs on a Friday afternoon might be enough to keep your system functional without asking too much of yourself.

Embodied Aspects of Task Management

Your relationship with tasks and task systems is deeply embodied and affected by your physical and emotional condition. Any changes to your physical and emotional condition may significantly impact your effectiveness. Accordingly, it only makes sense for you to pay close attention to your physical and emotional state.

Physical Reactions to Backlogs

Pay attention to your body's response when you open your backlog. Do your shoulders tense? Does your breathing change? These physical reactions provide valuable information about your relationship with your task system.

Thomas, a client with significant trauma history, noticed immediate chest tightness whenever he opened his digital task management system. His bodily response triggered anxiety and a corresponding desire to avoid looking at his tasks. Over time, he began to check his system and engage in the maintenance rituals less frequently until his system was no longer useful for him. We developed a brief physical and emotional regulation practice consisting of him taking three deep breaths and consciously allowing his shoulders to relax that he could practice before opening his backlog. This simple physical intervention helped Thomas maintain a regulated state that better supported his regular planning.

Sensory Aspects of Task Management

Different individuals have different sensory preferences that affect their relationship with productivity tools. The sensory preferences that work best for you will fundamentally affect whether you'll maintain and use your system consistently. For instance, your decision whether to keep your daily todo list digitally or on paper might make the difference between you productively using your system or not.

Emotional Relationships with Tasks

Your emotional responses to tasks significantly impact your ability to execute them. Understanding your emotional patterns can help inform your better task selection during the Daily Aiming Ritual.

Amanda, a client with complex ADHD and anxiety, observed that thinking about her administrative tasks immediately caused her to experience bodily tension and her corresponding desire to avoid and procrastinate. Rather than encouraging her to force herself to do what felt so aversive to her, we instead figured out that she could use a "sandwich" approach to task planning and scheduling that made it easier for her to complete her work. The sandwich approach encouraged Amanda to schedule high-interest and easy-to-do tasks before and after the administrative work she needed to get done, while also helping her set a rule that she would only work on administrative tasks for 25 minutes or less. This approach worked with her embodied emotional and physical responses rather than against them, significantly improving her capacity to follow-through and complete her administrative tasks.

A Simple Starting Point

If you're feeling overwhelmed by these concepts, here's a minimal viable approach to get started:

1. Create just two backlogs:

   • Work/Professional (for all work-related commitments)

   • Personal/Home (for everything else)

2. Choose simple tools that feel accessible:

   • Digital option: A basic list app like Google Keep or Apple Notes

   • Physical option: A notebook with clearly marked sections

3. Implement a basic Daily Aiming Ritual:

   • Each morning (or evening for the next day), review both backlogs

   • Complete any Task Analysis that needs to be done

   • Select just 3 priority tasks for the day

   • Write these on a sticky note or in a dedicated daily todo list

4. Maintain boundaries around your daily list:

   • Limit yourself to 3-5 items total

   • If new tasks emerge during the day, add them to the appropriate backlog, not to today's list (unless the new tasks are truly urgent)

5. Schedule a weekly Backlog Refinement Ritual:

   • Set aside 15-30 minutes once a week for Backlog Refinement

   • Record any captured tasks that are not yet assigned to a backlog

   • Remove all completed tasks

   • Update and reorganize each backlog as needed

This simplified approach provides the essential infrastructure without requiring overwhelming complexity. You can always add to and refine your system as your needs evolve.

Bringing It All Together

The relationship between backlogs and daily todo lists is at the heart of effective task management. Backlogs provide comprehensive, organized spaces that free your mind from the burden of remembering every commitment. Daily lists translate the project and task inventory contained in your backlogs into focused, intentional and temporary execution plans that direct your attention to what matters most right now. This two-level system works with your brain's natural operating design rather against it.

In future posts, I'll expand on this framework by exploring how daily todo lists serve as just one part of a larger "productivity freeway" system. You'll learn how the Daily Aiming Ritual acts as your "on-ramp" to productivity, while other important transitions, like moving between tasks, handling interruptions, and shifting back to planning mode, each require their own supportive practices. I'll also delve deeper into the neurobiological underpinnings of these mode transitions, including how your awareness of your physical and emotional state can help you facilitate smoother shifts between your different modes of operation.

For now, I encourage you to experiment with simplifying your task management infrastructure using the principles I've outlined. Remember that the goal isn't perfect optimization! Instead, you are best off creating a reliable system you can trust to keep your projects and tasks safe, organized and simple enough to maintain, even on days when your executive function is challenged.

This is the sixth in a series exploring executive function and productivity. In my next post, I'll examine "Time Management Systems: Scheduling for Success" – how to structure your calendar and schedule to support consistent execution while respecting your natural rhythms and regulatory patterns.