Below is a daily to-do list template you can paste into any notes app or print out. It splits the day into fixed-time items, a Top 3, a should-do list and quick tasks, so you decide what matters before the day starts. Fill it in the evening before or first thing in the morning. Then carry unfinished tasks forward on purpose instead of letting them pile up.
Daily to-do list template (copy and paste)
Copy everything in the box. The - [ ] lines use Markdown checklist syntax, so apps that read Markdown show them as tickable boxes. On paper, tick the brackets by hand.
## Today: [weekday, date]
### Fixed times
- [ ] 09:30
- [ ] 14:00
### Top 3 (must happen today)
- [ ] (est: )
- [ ] (est: )
- [ ] (est: )
### Should do (after the top 3)
- [ ] (est: )
- [ ] (est: )
### Quick tasks (under 10 minutes, do in one batch)
- [ ]
- [ ]
- [ ]
### Waiting on
- [ ] (from: )
### Notes and brain dump
-
### End of day
- Moved to tomorrow:
- Done but not on the list:
For light days, or if a long list makes you freeze, use the short version:
Today: [date]
- [ ] Top 1:
- [ ] Top 2:
- [ ] Top 3:
Fixed times:
Everything else:
How to fill it in
Once it's a habit, filling it in takes a few minutes. Do it at the same point every day: the evening before, or in the morning before you open email.
- Write everything on your mind under Notes and brain dump, unsorted. Don't judge it yet. For a method for this step, see how to do a brain dump.
- Move anything with a set time (calls, appointments, a train) into Fixed times, with the time first.
- Pick three items for Top 3. A good test: if only these three got done, would today still count as a good day?
- Put the next most useful items in Should do.
- Move anything that takes under 10 minutes into Quick tasks.
- Add a rough estimate to each Top 3 and Should do item, such as
(est: 45m). - Add up the estimates and compare them with the free hours you have once fixed-time items are taken out. If the list doesn't fit, move Should do items to tomorrow now rather than at 5 p.m.
- Delete or park whatever is left in the brain dump.
Write each task as an action that starts with a verb: "Email Sam the Q3 figures" instead of "Q3". A vague task is easy to skip. A specific one tells you exactly what to do when you sit down.
How the priority sections work
Fixed times sits at the top because time beats priority. A 2 p.m. call happens whether or not it's the most important thing on your list, so you plan around it.
Top 3 holds the tasks that make the day worth it. Three is a working number, not a rule. On a day packed with meetings, one honest top task beats three you won't reach. Do these first, or in your best hours of focus.
Should do holds tasks you start only after the Top 3 are done, or when a top task is blocked. If they slip to tomorrow, nothing breaks.
Quick tasks collects small jobs: reply to a message, pay a bill, book a room. Doing them in one block, for example right after lunch, stops them from breaking up focused work all day.
Waiting on lists things other people owe you. Check it once a day and send a nudge where needed.
If choosing the Top 3 is the hard part, sort your brain dump with the four quadrants of time management:
| Quadrant | Where it goes in the template |
|---|---|
| Urgent and important | Top 3 |
| Important, not urgent | At least one Top 3 slot on most days, or it never happens |
| Urgent, not important | Quick tasks, or hand it to someone else |
| Neither | Delete it |
For focused work on your Top 3, a timer helps. The Pomodoro technique pairs well with this list: work on a single top task for each 25-minute block.
Reusing the template every day
A template only saves time if you never rebuild it from scratch.
- Keep a master copy that you never fill in. Each day, duplicate it and change the date.
- Carry tasks over on purpose. Unticked items don't move by themselves. Look at each one and decide: copy it to tomorrow (usually into Should do, not straight into Top 3), or delete it.
- Watch for tasks that keep moving. If a task has been carried over three days in a row, it's either too big or not really wanted. Break it into a first step you can finish in one sitting, or drop it.
- Spend two minutes on End of day. Note what moved and what you did that wasn't planned. After a week, patterns show up, such as estimates that are always too low or one meeting that always eats your afternoon.
- Plan the week once. A weekly planner template holds the bigger goals, and each daily list pulls its Top 3 from there.
Digital or paper
Both work. The better choice is the one you'll still be using in a month.
| Paper | Notes or to-do app | |
|---|---|---|
| Carrying tasks to tomorrow | Rewrite by hand | Copy and paste, or set a date |
| Finding last week's list | Flip back through pages | Search |
| Distraction | None | Other apps are one click away |
| Always visible | If it sits on your desk | If you pin the window or keep it open |
| Setup | A pen | Learning the app's checklist syntax |
Pick paper if you spend part of the day away from a screen, or if crossing things out by hand keeps you going.
Pick digital if you carry many tasks forward, need to search old lists, or already spend the day at your computer.
Using the template in Gubb
We make Gubb, a small notes window for Mac and Windows with checklists and to-do lists built in. There are two ways to use the template in it.
As a checklist note
This mirrors the template above most closely. Gubb turns Markdown markers into blocks as you type them, followed by Space.
- Click + (Create New Note) in the title bar. The title-bar buttons appear when you hover over it.
- For each section heading, type
###, press Space, then type the heading. - At the start of a line, type
[ ]and press Space to make a checkbox. - Press Return (Enter on Windows) to add the next item. Press it on an empty item to end the list.
- Click a box to tick it. Ticked items are struck through.
To keep the list in view while you work, hover the right edge of the note and click Pin window on top.
As a to-do block with priorities and dates
- On an empty line, type
gubb@todo(or/todo) with nothing else on that line. The line turns into a to-do block. - For a quick task, type in Add a task... and press Return.
- To set a priority, click + (Add new task) instead and choose a Priority: None, Low, Medium, High or Urgent. A simple mapping: Urgent or High for your Top 3, Medium for Should do, Low for Quick tasks.
- Set a Due Date of today on the tasks you plan to finish today.
- Use Add subtasks to break a big task into first steps.
Tasks are grouped into Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming and No Date. A task dated today that you don't finish lands under Overdue the next day, which gives you your carry-over check without copying anything.
Know the limits before you rely on it. Due dates have no time, there are no reminders or notifications, tasks can't repeat, and you can't drag tasks to reorder them. Keep fixed-time items in your calendar and use the to-do block for everything else. The to-do section of the help center covers the rest.
Gubb is a one-time purchase with no subscription, and the Mac download includes a 7-day free trial.
To plan the whole day hour by hour instead of as a list, use the daily planner template. For filled-in lists you can copy for work, study and home, see these to-do list examples.