To-do list: why writing down things to do actually helps us get them done

WELCOME SEPTEMBER!

And this month more than ever, there are days when the to-do list seems to have a rather curious characteristic: the more things we check off, the more new ones appear. An email generates a phone call, the phone call an appointment, the appointment three more things to remember. By the end of the day, some items have been deleted, others have been moved to tomorrow, and at least one has been there long enough to have become part of the decor.

Yet we keep writing lists.

We do it in a planner, on a piece of paper next to the computer, in the notes on our smartphone, or in one of the many apps designed to organize tasks and deadlines. The tools vary, but the gesture remains surprisingly similar: taking something we have in mind, writing it down somewhere, and, sooner or later, hoping to get it done.

Writing a to-do list can help us organize our to-dos because it transfers tasks from memory to an external medium, making them more concrete, and allowing us to see what we've already completed. However, the list works best when it's simple: if we spend more time organizing it than completing it, it risks becoming just another task to manage.

The question, then, is less trivial than it seems: why does making a to-do list really help us organize our to-dos? And why is crossing an item off the list so satisfying?

1. WHY WRITING A TO-DO LIST HELPS YOU REMEMBER THINGS TO DO

One of the simplest functions of a to-do list is also the one we tend to overlook: not having to keep everything in mind at once.

An unfinished task has a certain ability to come back to bite us. The email we need to reply to, the appointment we need to schedule, or that document we need to finish can resurface while we're doing something completely different, especially when we haven't yet decided when and how to address it.

Research by psychologists EJ Masicampo and Roy Baumeister , published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , observed precisely this phenomenon: uncompleted goals can interfere with other cognitive activities, while formulating a specific plan to complete them can reduce this interference.

In other words, it's not always necessary to have already done something for our mind to temporarily stop dwelling on it. Sometimes it helps to have decided what we're going to do and how we're going to do it.

This is where a good to-do list becomes more than a reminder. Writing "prepare presentation" doesn't prepare the presentation for us, unfortunately, but it transforms a thought that keeps circulating in our head into a visible and, above all, manageable task.

The list doesn't do the work for us. It helps us shape the work.

2. WHY CHECKING OFF A TO-DO LIST IS SO SATISFACTORY

You can't tick off a workday. You can tick off an email.

"Work on the project" is a pretty hard thing to cross off a list. "Send the three changes to Edoardo by 15 PM" is definitely less so.

One of the reasons to-do lists work is precisely their ability to transform something as abstract as work into a sequence of concrete actions. A day might seem chaotic; five tasks written on a sheet of paper have a beginning, an end, and, possibly, a little box next to it.

It doesn't necessarily mean that a list makes us more productive. It just means that it makes progress visible.

Checking off a task gives us immediate feedback: something that was still pending just a few minutes or hours ago is now complete. The physical act of crossing out, deleting, or checking off a box highlights a change that, without a list, would be much less visible.

And this is probably also why deleting an entry can give a satisfaction that is apparently disproportionate to the gesture.

Then there are those who even add tasks that are practically already completed to their list just so they can delete them immediately.

But we won't name names.

3. PAPER OR DIGITAL TO-DO LIST: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

The to-do list, meanwhile, has multiplied.

We have digital calendars, reminders, apps to organize tasks, shared notes, project management tools, and notifications that can remind us of something we've already written in three other places.

Yet pen and paper continue to survive on desks.

There's no such thing as a paper or digital to-do list that's absolutely better: the two tools meet different needs. Apps allow you to sync tasks, set deadlines and reminders, share lists, and quickly adjust priorities. Pen and paper, on the other hand, offer freer and more immediate interaction.

A sheet of paper allows you to write something, circle it, cross it out, move it with an arrow, and add another in the margin without having to first decide which category it should go into.

They are two different ways of organizing work and, in most contemporary desks, they coexist without too many problems.

We've already discussed the relationship between handwriting and digital tools, discussing the return of notebooks, crossword puzzles, and analog tools. Handwriting isn't necessarily a rejection of technology: it can simply be another way to organize information, thoughts, and tasks.

The real question, then, isn't whether a paper or digital to-do list is better. It's where we can build a system simple enough to actually continue using.

4. WHEN ORGANIZING WORK BECOMES ANOTHER JOB

Here comes the problem.

Because organizing things to do can be incredibly satisfying. Almost more satisfying than doing them.

We can divide tasks by project, assign colors to priorities, create categories, set deadlines, move tasks, and rewrite the list on Monday morning because the one from last week "no longer works."

At that point the line between organizing work and working on your own organizational system becomes quite thin.

An effective to-do list should do exactly the opposite: simplify task management and reduce the number of decisions needed to figure out what to do next . When it requires ongoing maintenance, it risks adding a new layer of complexity to the very thing we wanted to simplify.

Perhaps this is also why, despite all the tools available, the original format remains so difficult to beat: a surface, something to write with, and a series of things that, sooner or later, we would like to erase.

You don't necessarily need a perfect system. You need a system that doesn't require another to-do list to manage.

5. THE TOOLS THAT LEAVE ON THE DESK

There are objects we use because they are needed at a specific moment and others that end up earning a permanent place on the desk.

Writing instruments often fall into the second category. They're there to jot down a number during a phone call, edit a sketch, record an appointment, or, inevitably, add another item to the list.

It is also within this type of daily gesture that CENTO3.O finds its place , the mechanical micro-pen from the CENTO3 collection, designed by Achille Castiglioni and Gianfranco Cavaglià and now produced by EGOUNDESIGN.

Its trilobate shape is born from the relationship between the instrument and the three fingers that hold it and, once placed on the desk, it also has a very concrete advantage: it doesn't roll away.

A small detail, until the moment the pencil you were looking for is no longer under the table.

Perhaps this is what makes seemingly simple objects like a pencil, a notebook, or a handwritten list still interesting. They don't have to revolutionize the way we work. They have to work well enough to become part of those gestures we repeat almost without realizing it.

And the to-do list?

We'll probably never really get to the end. But at least we can keep winning. And then add something else.