When To-Do List
Turn intentions into commitments by assigning every task a time
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The When To-Do List adds a time commitment to every important item. Instead of recording only what should happen, assign each task a defined place in the day. Apply the same rule to meetings, focused work, exercise, tea with a partner, and time with children. This makes personal priorities mandatory rather than rewards postponed until work is finished. The schedule should state when each block starts and ends, reducing dead time and preventing vague tasks from slipping indefinitely. The mechanism is implementation through constraint: a task tied to a time becomes a concrete appointment, while a conventional to-do item remains an aspiration that can continually yield to whatever feels urgent.
Origin
Moore says Forbes covered the concept after he developed it as an alternative to a conventional to-do list.
Core principles
- 01A task without a time remains optional
- 02Personal commitments deserve the same protection as meetings
- 03Intentional scheduling prevents dead time and slippage
- 04Work and life can be planned as one integrated day
How to run it
- 1
Choose real commitments
List the work, health, relationship, and family activities that genuinely need to happen.
Pro tip Plan a realistic set rather than copying an endless backlog.
Watch out Do not turn every possible task into a same-day commitment.
- 2
Assign times
Give every chosen item a specific start and end time in the calendar.
Pro tip Include transition and preparation time where it is genuinely needed.
Watch out Do not hide oversized tasks inside unrealistically short blocks.
- 3
Protect personal priorities
Schedule exercise, rest, meals, and relationships with the same seriousness as business meetings.
Pro tip Put easily displaced personal priorities in the calendar before filling optional work.
Watch out Do not make family or health contingent on finishing an open-ended work task.
- 4
Execute intentionally
Start each activity at its assigned time and stop when the block ends unless a deliberate exception is necessary.
Pro tip Use the schedule to decide what not to do in each block.
Watch out Do not let unscheduled low-value activity consume protected time.
- 5
Review and recalibrate
At the end of the day, inspect missed blocks and adjust future duration, scope, or timing.
Pro tip Treat repeated misses as planning evidence rather than a character flaw.
Watch out Do not simply roll every missed item into an overloaded tomorrow.
In the wild
An entrepreneur blocks a defined period to have tea with his wife and another to play with his children. Those activities no longer wait until all work is complete, because their calendar status makes them as mandatory as a podcast or business meeting.
→ Important personal time happens reliably instead of being displaced by open-ended work.
Common mistakes
Listing without scheduling
A conventional task list states an intention but does not create a decision about when the work will happen.
Scheduling work only
Leaving family, rest, and exercise unscheduled makes them vulnerable to work that expands throughout the day.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people whose ordinary to-do lists repeatedly slip or crowd out personal priorities.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when unpredictable emergency work makes a tightly blocked day unrealistic.
From the transcript
“called the when to do list”
“it's not just what you want to do but you assign a time to it”
“if you make it mandatory as much as it's important to breathe in and out or go to a certain business meeting its spending that…”
From the episode
Richard Moore on The Laws of Selling