Get things crossed of the to-do list with Five to None

I thought of a to-do list management system in 2009 that works for me. I've tweaked it a bit since. (I like to think of it as TLM -- to-do list management. We all need a good TLM to stay afloat in today's hectic life.)

I call it: Five to none. Basically it works like this and is meant to be implemented in a 5 day period like a standard work week.

• On Day 1 we write 5 to-dos. We complete as many of these as possible and carryover any remaining ones to Day 2.
• On Day 2 we write 4 to-dos. (First carrying over any left overs from day before. So if we complete 3 tasks on Day 1 we carry over the 2 undone tasks onto today's to-dos.
• On Day 3 we write 3 to-dos. And carry over any undone tasks from Day 2.... I think you see the pattern here.
• On Day 4 we write 2 to-dos. Carry over the undone tasks from Day 3....
• On Day 5 we write done just 1 to-do.
• That's it, take two days off and repeat the process on Monday (or whatever day you deem the start of your week.)

I'm playing with the process but find it an easy way to weed through a list by keeping it small and allowing for undone tasks to remain in scope. The ambition of this TLM is to keep progress going forward and not try to cut the forest down in one swoop. But offer a more realistic approach that actually gets tasks done. GTD!