How to pick your top 3 tasks each day

Why a short list works better than a long one

We tend to plan more than fits in a day

In 1994, Buehler, Griffin and Ross studied how people predict when they will finish their own tasks. Across academic and everyday tasks, their predictions “were too optimistic”, and people focused on future plans rather than on how similar tasks had gone before. A long morning list inherits that optimism. A list of three leaves room for the meeting that runs over and the errand that takes twice as long.

Parking the rest frees your attention

Unfinished goals keep coming back to mind. In a 2011 paper, Masicampo and Baumeister found that unfinished goals caused intrusive thoughts during an unrelated task, and that letting people make a specific plan for those goals removed the effect. Writing down where and when the other tasks will get attention is part of the practice, not a chore after it.

How to pick your three

1. Empty your head first. Write down every task on your mind, in one place, before choosing anything, so you choose from the whole list rather than from whatever you remember first.
2. Ask one question. If these were the only three things done today, would the day be a win? Deadlines, promises to other people and tasks that unblock others usually answer it.
3. Check the day you actually have. Look at your calendar. On a day full of meetings, one or two priorities may be the honest number.
4. Make each one finishable. Start with a verb and name the result: “Call the dentist”, not “Health stuff”. A task too big for one day becomes its first step.
5. Give a time to the ones that need it. A task that depends on someone else's hours or on a pickup gets a reminder at the time you can act on it.
6. Park the rest where you will see it. Everything else goes on a list for later, so it is out of today's way but not forgotten.

At the end of the day

Some days not all three get done. Decide about each unfinished task on purpose rather than letting it roll over by default: is it still one of tomorrow's three, or should it wait? If a task keeps carrying over day after day, it may be too big or not really a priority; split it into a first step or move it back to the later list.

Then look at what did get done. A day with three of three is a good day, and so is a day where the most important one got finished.

Tasks that come back

Some priorities return on a schedule: paying a bill on the first of the month, a weekly report, watering the plants every few days. Set them up once to repeat, then pick them on the days they come back. They still count as one of your three, which keeps the list honest.

What Top 3 Priorities: Daily To Do does, and what it does not

Top 3 Priorities: Daily To Do is built around this practice. Each morning you pick up to three tasks for Today, from a New task field or from Later, where everything else waits. You can set a reminder on any of the three, with Done and Later today on the notification, and a morning pick reminder on days with open slots. Repeating tasks return on the days you set: every day, weekdays, chosen days of the week, every few days or monthly on a date. The next day starts clean, and unfinished tasks ask before they carry over. All of that is free every day, with no account.

Pro adds Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets that show today's three, start dates and tasks planned for future days, history and a weekly review of the days you won, and themes.

It is deliberately small. It has no projects, tags, shared lists or calendar view, no Apple Watch app, no AI features and no import from other apps. Tasks stay on your iPhone and do not sync to other devices. If you need those things, a full task manager is a better fit, and you can still use this practice on top of it.

Top 3 Priorities: Daily To Do is coming soon to the App Store.