The Today-Tomorrow Method: A Simpler Way to Plan Your Day
Most productivity systems ask you to plan weeks, months, or your entire life. The Today-Tomorrow Method is different: plan only today and tomorrow. Everything else goes in a backlog. It's simple, sustainable, and it works.
The Problem with Overplanning
Planning too far ahead creates problems:
- Overwhelm: Seeing 47 tasks across 3 weeks triggers paralysis
- Wasted effort: Plans change; detailed future plans become obsolete
- Decision fatigue: Choosing what to do from a massive list drains energy
- Guilt: Unfinished future tasks feel like failures, even when they're not due yet
The Today-Tomorrow Method solves this by limiting your active planning to two days.
The Today-Tomorrow Method Explained
Today: Tasks you're committed to doing today. Your focus list. When you open your to-do app, this is what you see first.
Tomorrow: Tasks you're planning for tomorrow. A preview. You can move items here the night before or each morning. Tomorrow becomes Today when the day rolls over.
Backlog: Everything else. No due date, or due later. Not cluttering Today or Tomorrow. You pull from Backlog when you're ready to schedule something.
That's it. Two active days. One holding area. No projects, no tags, no complex structure.
Why Only Two Days?
Cognitive load: Two days is manageable. Your brain can hold "today" and "tomorrow" without stress. Add a week and you're juggling too much.
Flexibility: Plans change. Tomorrow might shift. A two-day window adapts. A two-week plan doesn't.
Focus: When Today is your only "must do" list, you focus. Tomorrow is a gentle preview, not a commitment.
Sustainability: Simple systems stick. Complex systems get abandoned. Today-Tomorrow is simple enough to use every day.
How to Handle Your Backlog
The Backlog isn't a dumping ground for guilt. It's a "someday" list. Tasks go there when:
- You don't know when you'll do them
- They're due in a week or more
- You're not ready to commit to Today or Tomorrow
When to pull from Backlog: Each morning, when planning Today. Or the night before, when planning Tomorrow. Move 2–5 items. Don't dump your whole Backlog into Today—that defeats the purpose.
When to add to Backlog: When you capture a task but don't want it in Today or Tomorrow. Quick capture, defer the decision.
How TaskSpot Implements the Today-Tomorrow Method
TaskSpot is built around this method. Five views: Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming, Backlog, Done, Deleted.
- Today: Your focus. What you're doing today.
- Tomorrow: Your preview. What you're planning for tomorrow.
- Upcoming: Tasks with future due dates. Calendar view. Not cluttering Today/Tomorrow.
- Backlog: No due date. Your "someday" list.
- Done: Completed tasks. Satisfaction.
- Deleted: Accidentally deleted? Recover from here.
Morning briefing email: Start your day with your Today list in your inbox. No need to open the app first thing.
Getting Started
- Tonight or this morning: List 3–7 tasks for Today. No more. If you have more, put them in Tomorrow or Backlog.
- Add Tomorrow: 2–5 items you're planning for tomorrow. Preview, not commitment.
- Use Backlog: Everything else. Don't look at it during the day. Plan from it each morning.
- Repeat: Each day, Today becomes yesterday. Tomorrow becomes Today. Pull from Backlog as needed.
Common Questions
What about tasks due next week? Put them in Upcoming (if your app has it) or Backlog. Schedule them into Tomorrow when the time is right.
What if I have 20 things due today? You don't. Prioritize. Pick 5–7 for Today. The rest go to Tomorrow or Backlog. Saying "no" to today is a feature.
What about projects? The Today-Tomorrow Method doesn't use projects. Tasks are tasks. If you need to track a project, use Backlog and pull project tasks into Today/Tomorrow as you work on them.
Can I use this with any to-do app? Yes. Use Today/Tomorrow as lists or views. Keep a Backlog. The method is app-agnostic. TaskSpot just builds it in.
Try the Today-Tomorrow Method
Get started with TaskSpot—free, built for the Today-Tomorrow Method, no setup required.
Read The Power of Daily Planning or Why Most To-Do Apps Fail.