How a To Do list decides what's next

The four sliders

The key idea is that urgency and importance are different kinds of thing. Urgency is a fact. Importance is your opinion.

Two consequences are easy to miss. First, a must-do task can still be unimportant. Food shopping has to happen, but if a button could make the groceries appear you'd press it, so do it as quickly as is acceptable and save your care for what matters. Second, a task that is both urgent and important usually means it was left too long: it was important and not urgent once, and that was the time to do it.

Sliders start in the middle. A task nobody has rated yet shows as unrated and scores 9, so it sits in the middle of the pack until you rate it.

Why not a simpler rule

Croft arrived at his approach by ruling out the simple ones. Every rule that looks at a single slider fails sooner or later:

• Easiest, smallest or most fun first: the hard, important work never starts, and the list gets steadily less pleasant as the nice jobs are used up.
• Most urgent first: you live in crisis mode, and important work waits until it becomes a crisis too.
• Oldest, loudest person or random: none of these reflect your goals.
• Most important first: better, but chores and deadlines get missed.
• Importance × urgency: nearly right, and Croft almost shipped it. But low-importance, low-urgency jobs (filing, tidying, housework) never surface until they turn urgent, and it makes no allowance for morale or procrastination.

So the score keeps importance × urgency as its backbone and adds bonuses for three kinds of job worth sprinkling in.

How the score works

Each slider runs from 0 to 100 and is turned into a rating from 1 to 5 (rating = 1 + slider ÷ 25), so the far left is 1, the middle is 3 and the far right is 5. Positions in between give ratings in between. Then:

Due dates raise urgency

A task with a due date uses whichever is higher: its urgency slider, or the urgency that comes from the date. This is how chores without much importance still climb the list as they start to matter.

Dates are plain calendar days in your own time zone, so clock changes never move them. When two tasks tie, the one due sooner goes first, then the one that has been on the list longer.

A worked example

The will, important but not urgent and unpleasant, beats the routine chores, so it gets done before it becomes a crisis. The pub comes last. Croft uses that as his own sanity check: a formula that picks the pub isn't working.

Rating new tasks quickly

Add tasks as fast as you think of them, then rate them in one go. When a list has unrated tasks, a "✦ new tasks to rate" prompt appears above Next up. Rate now steps through them one at a time, oldest first.

• Presets set all four sliders in one tap, and each lands in the bonus it's named after: Quick win (small and fun), Leverage (important and small: high leverage), Big project (important, big and no fun: the procrastination-risk kind), Urgent and Chore. Two more have no bonus on purpose: Treat (fun but not small, so it tops Low energy) and Someday (no urgency, so it stays on the list without pushing). For work: Follow-up (important, fairly urgent, quick, and it turns the follow-up flag on) and People (staff issues and hard conversations: important, effortful and no fun, so the procrastination-risk bonus keeps them from being put off). Adjust any slider afterwards. Turning on Follow-up in the rater applies the Follow-up preset too, if you haven't moved the sliders yet; pick People instead when it's a people follow-up.
• When, under the title: Wkday / Wkend and AM / PM / Eve, one tap each, tap again to clear. See When and follow-ups below.
• Tag chips for the tags already on the list set a task's tag in one tap.
• The date pill beside the title opens your calendar to set a due date. The score updates as soon as you pick, and × clears it.
• Save & next (or Enter) saves and moves on. It counts as rated even if you leave every slider in the middle. Skip leaves a task unrated for next time. Back revisits the one before, and Drop this task (tap twice) clears out junk.
• New / All at the top switches between unrated tasks (the default) and every open task, best first, so you can review ratings you've already set and re-apply presets. Once everything is rated, the list's ⋯ menu has Review ratings.
• Edit details opens the task's full edit sheet, carrying over whatever you changed in the rater. The same presets are in the full edit sheet too.
• At the end you see how many you rated and what's now best to do next.

Jobs that need a plan

Some jobs can't happen at the last minute: a trip, a party, a big repair. Setting a due date isn't enough, because the planning has to happen well before it. Mark these Needs a plan, either beside the score in the edit sheet or with the chip in Rate new tasks.

• A plan-by date two weeks before the due date. While a task needs a plan, its urgency counts from that date instead of the deadline, and it gets a +3 "needs a plan" bonus. A trip due Nov 30 starts climbing toward the top in early November, not on Nov 29.
• "✎ tasks need a plan · Plan now" appears on the list, like the rating prompt, soonest plan-by first. It steps through them one at a time with room to write the plan, which is saved in the task's notes.
• Planned & next marks the plan made. From then on the task scores like any other, against its real due date. Save notes, still needs a plan keeps a half-made plan on the list.
• When the Next up pick still needs a plan, its main button is Plan it instead of Done, because planning is the next step.
• Turn lines into tasks: as you write a plan, each line shows up in a checklist under it. Tick the ones that are real to-dos and choose Add as tasks. Each becomes its own task, unrated so it waits in Rate new tasks, with the parent's tag and assignee and a note saying which plan it came from. A day in the line is still read, so "Book tickets by Friday" gets a due date. Lines that are already a task are marked and can't be added twice.

Next up, modes and sorting

The Next up card at the top always shows the best pick and the reasons for it. Done checks it off. Not now moves to the next pick for this visit only; it isn't saved and nobody else sees it. Edit opens the sliders.

Overdue doesn't slip past. Anything past its due date, or with a Schedule block that's over and wasn't ticked, shows in a coral ⚠ Overdue strip right above Next up (and as "⚠ N overdue" on the homepage card). Catch up opens them one by one: Done, Today (due today, or back on today's plan at the next free time), Tomorrow (off today, due and back tomorrow) or Edit. Hidden tasks stay out of it.

Croft's advice is that the formula is only one way to choose, and the right one depends on the moment. The mode chips match those moments:

The Next tab is for deciding, so it stays short: the Next up card plus the three tasks after it. Show all opens the rest, and it warns you when a tucked-away task is due today or overdue. Done tasks fold to one line there too. Your phone or computer remembers which way you left both.

The other sort tabs show the whole list, ordered by one slider: Urgent is worth a glance every day to see what's about to bite, and Important is worth checking often to see whether you're giving enough time to what matters. Added shows the newest first, Effort the smallest first.

The other pieces

• Hide until: a task disappears until the date you pick, then comes back on its own. Croft's example is Christmas shopping reappearing in early November. A line under the list shows how many are hidden, and tapping it shows them.
• Tags: one per task, such as Work or Home. Each tag gets its own colour, and filter chips appear once a list has two or more tags.
• Done and Drop are different: ticking a task marks it done. It moves to the Done shelf and can be reinstated by unticking it. Done tasks are cleared automatically after 90 days. Drop task in the edit sheet is for when you decide not to do it at all, and it asks you to tap twice.
• Notes: up to 1,000 characters per task.

Days of the week and repeating tasks

Type a day into a new task and the list reads it. The title stays exactly as you typed it, a note under the add box says what was set, and Undo takes it back.

A one-off needs a lead word such as "on", "this", "next" or "by", so a title like "Wednesday Addams costume" is left alone. A repeat needs a plural ("weekends", "Wednesdays") or "every".

How a repeating task behaves

Give it a time (the rater's ↻ Repeat, or "At" under Repeats on) and it becomes an appointment: "weekdays 7:30 am" is on each weekday, on that day's Schedule at 7:30. Tick it and it's back on the next day. Without a time, days in a row count as one occurrence, below.

• On its days it's on the list and due that day, so urgency sits at the top of the scale and it rises toward the top of Next up.
• Off its days it's hidden, the same way "hide until" works, so a weekend chore stays out of your weekday list.
• Ticking it doesn't send it to the Done shelf. It hides until its next day and comes back on its own. A note with Undo confirms when it'll be back.
• Days that run together count once. A weekend chore done on Saturday is done for that weekend and returns next Saturday.
• Early or late still counts. Done on Friday, the weekend chore counts for that weekend. Done on Monday after a missed weekend, it counts for the one you missed and comes back on Saturday.
• Change or stop it with the Repeats on day buttons in the edit sheet. Weekend, between Saturday and Sunday, turns both on in one tap, for jobs that can happen on either day. Turn all the days off and it becomes an ordinary task.

When and follow-ups

Two small facts about a task make the list fit a working day: which days it belongs to, and which part of the day.

• Wkday / Wkend. A weekday task hides on Saturday and Sunday and comes back on Monday; a weekend task hides Monday to Friday. A deadline beats the preference: a task that's due today or overdue always shows, and so does anything on today's schedule. The hidden line at the bottom of the list counts them on their own ("3 weekday tasks · back Mon"). A repeating task ignores this, because its repeat days already say when.
• AM / PM / Eve (morning 5 am to noon, afternoon noon to 5 pm, evening after 5 pm). Nothing hides: while it's that part of the day the task gets +4 "right time", enough to lift a middling task above similar ones without jumping over the big ones. Schedule drops it into that part of the day, unless that part is already over.
• Titles can say it too: "this morning", "in the afternoon", "tonight", "on a weekday".

Follow-ups don't get lost

The things picked up in a meeting or a hallway ("I'll get back to you", "check the order was filed") are the ones a busy list buries. Turn on Follow-up in the rater or the edit sheet (or use the Follow-up preset), then say which kind:

• I owe: someone is waiting on you.
• Waiting on: you're waiting on someone. It hides for two working days (the check-back), then comes back as a chase.

A follow-up's urgency starts at 3.5 and climbs half a point every working day it stays open, up to 5, the same top as an overdue deadline. On top of that it gets +8 "follow-up" while it's its time: always, unless you gave it a part of the day and it's a different part now (then +2). Follow-ups are the things you picked up during the day to knock out, so they lead Next up, ahead of even a deadline due today, until you turn Follow-up off or they're done. Set Wkday and AM/PM on one and it leads at exactly those times. Its row shows how long it has waited ("follow-up · 3d"). Choosing I owe on a shared list also assigns it to you, so Mine shows it. Show all counts any follow-ups it's hiding. On a shared list, Follow-ups plus Mine gives just your own.

Schedule my day

Once you know what matters, give it a time. ◷ Schedule my day (or Schedule tomorrow in the evening) at the top of the list opens a timeline for today or tomorrow. In the evening it opens on tomorrow, following Croft's habit of writing tomorrow's list the night before.

• Suggested lists what Next would pick on that day, so anything due then or repeating on that day is near the top. Tap + to drop it into the next free slot, or drag it onto the timeline at the time you want.
• Each task becomes a time block. Its length is the task's ⏱ duration if you set one (the rater's ⏱ chip at the end of the When row, or "How long" in the edit sheet: 15m to 24h). Without one it starts from Effort (tiny 15m, small 30m, medium 1h, big 90m, huge 2h).
• 🚗 Drive time (there and back, in total) is split evenly round the task and drawn as gray bands: "Buy dog food", 30m with 1h of driving, at 9:30 blocks out 9:00-9:30 driving, 9:30-10:00 shopping and 10:00-10:30 driving. The bands are busy time and move with the task. Under the drive buttons, Before or After puts all of the drive on one side instead (pick neither to split it).
• EndClear (the rater's flag row, or the edit sheet) is for commitments rather than to-dos: sleep, a work shift. It needs no tick and is never overdue. When its time ends (its Schedule block, drive back included, or its due day if it isn't on the Schedule) it clears itself: a repeat moves on to its next time, a one-off counts as done. It blocks out time on the Schedule but isn't a Next up pick.
• The day runs from midnight to midnight, and a long evening block runs on overnight: "Sleep" for 8h at 10 pm shows until midnight and continues the next day until 6 am (that piece moves with the original).
• Drag a block to re-time it, or drag its bottom edge to change its length, in 15-minute steps. Blocks never overlap: anything after a moved block shifts later to make room. On a phone, press and hold a block to pick it up. A plain swipe still scrolls.
• Running late? Put two fingers on a block and slide: it and every block after it move together, keeping their gaps, so a late start doesn't mean re-timing each one. Blocks before it stay put (the group stops at the end of the one before). With a mouse, Shift+drag does the same.
• Tap a block for its options: set a length, move it 15 minutes either way, mark it done, edit the task, or take it off the day. With a keyboard, the arrow keys move a focused block, Shift and an arrow key resize it, and Delete removes it.
• A day holds up to ten blocks, Croft's limit for a daily list. A red line marks the current time.
• The plan drives Next up while it's live. While a task's block is under way it gets +15 "on now", and in the half hour before it starts +8 "up next", so what you planned for this time rises to the top. A block that's over and unticked gets nothing; it waits as a leftover instead of nagging.
• The list shows Now / Next from today's plan at the top, and planned tasks show their time. Anything left unfinished from an earlier day is offered back: Move to today, or take it off the plan.

Personal or shared

A new To Do list is personal: only you can see it. It works offline and syncs across your devices when you're signed in.

• Editors you add by email in the share sheet get the full list, sliders included. A task has one set of ratings that everyone shares, and the most recent change wins.
• Assign a task to anyone on a shared list, the owner or an editor, from the edit sheet or the rater. Their initials show in a bubble on the task. Mine, next to the mode chips, narrows everything, Next up included, to the tasks assigned to you.
• An assigned task belongs to that person. It's never your next thing: it stays out of your Next up and Next tab, your Schedule, the Overdue alert, the plan and rate prompts, and your homepage card, and yours stay out of theirs. It's still on the list for everyone: the Added, Important, Urgent, Effort and Fun tabs show the whole list, and the Next tab notes "N assigned to others · see Added". Unassigned tasks are everyone's.
• A view link lets anyone read the list in Next order without signing in. They can't change anything, and tasks that are hidden until later stay hidden. They can read task notes, so keep anything private out of notes on a list you share this way.

Getting the most out of it

1. Know your goals first. Croft suggests four boxes: what you want to enjoy and what you want to achieve, at home and at work. Importance ratings come from these. Without them, they're guesses.
2. Break big things into small steps. "Learn Italian" is a project and will never feel doable. "One Italian lesson" is a task. Small steps also earn the high-leverage bonus.
3. Give deadlines a due date so urgency rises on its own, and once a week skim the Urgent tab and nudge any urgency that has changed.
4. Rush the unimportant must-dos. Low importance means do it fast, not skip it.
5. Pick the mode for the moment instead of always taking the top score.

Limits

• The scoring is a reconstruction from Croft's published rules. His app's own weights are unpublished, so its order can differ.
• A low-importance chore with no due date can still sit near the bottom for a long time. A due date, or an occasional urgency nudge, fixes that.
• The score is a suggestion. "Not now" and the modes are there because the best task on paper isn't always the right one for the next twenty minutes.