Living with a daily to-do list can be great or terrible. I have noticed the difference between feeling motivated by my list versus grinding under its tyranny isn’t how many things I actually do. It’s only how much I do relative to the length of the list. Said differently, what matters is expectation. Therefore, the number of things I put on my list is important. I don’t write down everything I want to do. That list is endless and saps my will to work. On the other hand, I try to write down enough to push myself to be productive each day. Judging what my productivity sweet spot is can be difficult. It is much better to err on the low side though. When I finish my to-do list early, I usually have the motivation to continue working.

Check out other work in the Personal Ethic series here.