The Toto-todo method update: 6 years later

I’m sure you all remember this famous, renowned blog post: The Toto-todo method.

6 years ago, I was starting my indie hacking journey, and I found myself facing a problem we all know: how do I organize my work?

When you work alone on multiple projects, with no external pressure, from home, with no roadmap, several problems arise:

• How do you prioritize your tasks?
• How do you motivate yourself, force yourself to work when nobody's telling you to do it?
• How do you get an overview of your projects?
• How do you stay efficient—meaning having good productivity and not getting too distracted?

6 years ago, I tried to answer all these questions as early as possible in my entrepreneurial journey.

I tested a huge number of tools, methods, and strategies to try to bring out the best version of myself. Before realizing that the best way to do things (at least for me) was also the simplest 😅.

I decided to drop almost all productivity tools and only use a notebook and a Notion database.

6 years later, here's where I stand.

What hasn't changed

I still use a notebook! Over all these years, I've kept buying the same one, and I'm now on my 6th 😍. I still follow the same process: in the morning, I sit down with my coffee, browse through my task database (which is no longer in Notion…), and pick what I'm going to do for the day.

My daily page:

I follow a simple principle: the goal is to complete everything once I've written it in my notebook.

However, I do allow myself the opposite—adding tasks at the end of the day if I've finished what I had planned and still have time and motivation left. So what I write in my notebook is, for me, the minimum to accomplish in a day.

I still have my 3 small circles at the top, next to "TODO," which serve as an overall completion indicator. Each task has its own small circle, which I fill in the moment I finish that task.

On the other hand, I've since dropped the "HABITS" section: I no longer feel the need for it, and to be honest, that approach was extremely frustrating. The days when I managed to check off all my habits were too rare, and it was demotivating.

I love this method, and I'm not about to change it. It's become an incredibly solid habit, to the point where I take my notebook with me when I go work somewhere other than home!

What has changed

I no longer use Notion. It was too heavy, too slow, it kept changing all the time—it was the opposite of what I was looking for.

I switched to Todoist 5 years ago, and I've never regretted it. It's lightweight, fast, and the updates are very restrained and well thought out. It's the perfect tool for me!

Each of my projects has a board, with several columns organized around "Backlog," "Todo," and "Doing."

I also have a list for my personal tasks.

That's it!

Todoist is available on my Mac, my iPhone, and even my Apple Watch. The UX is incredible, the design is effective—I don't need anything more!

Conclusion

TLDR;

• The simplest method is the best.
• Having 50 productivity tools is pointless.
• You can get your dopamine hit simply by checking off a task in a notebook.
• Limit the number of tasks you set for a single day.
• Have an overview of what you've accomplished during your day, so you can be proud of it.
• Writing down what you need to do does something in your brain that "brings the task to life" and motivates you.

— Thomas