I have several experiences of trying some 100-day-challenges, and unfortunately, most of them failed. I switched to the 30-day-challenges, but I still failed. When I skipped one day, I quickly lost the passion for catching up on the next day. Such a vicious circle certainly dulls my motivation. It hurts.

At a certain point in my life (Actually, just yesterday), I made a pivot change in my To-Do list app (I use “Todoist”). Here I want to write down these still-fresh ideas—how I reorganize my tasks and use the app as a better task tracker (At least it makes me FEEL much better.)

But I have to mention that my strategy is based on my purpose—I want to make reading an essential part of my daily routine. I may adjust this strategy if my target is set for other purposes or projects.

So, my initial inspiration is an article written by Jeff Huang. Jeff noted that he has been using a simple .txt file to track what is planned and what is done throughout a day in the past 12 years. For him, the .txt file functions as a daily list, a notetaker, and a “ready for archiving” record.

But I think a single .txt file is too “hardcore” for me. I want to appropriate the idea in another way. Instead of setting recurring tasks such as “read 30mins” on each day (these tasks are usually set to repeat forever), I move my “To-Read” shelves from other places to “Todoist.” I also changed my habit of marking books—my old ritual is marking “reading” and “want-to-read” books on book-recommendation platforms such as Goodreads and Douban. But now, I can make a wish list just in the “Todoist.”

This process also has a few nice properties:

  • It saves me time when I mark “want-to-read” books just within the To-Do list.
  • I won’t forget about the “want-to-read” book.
  • There’s no recurring nor tedious To-Do list anymore, as it got turned into a reading list, and it forces me to schedule a new reading task on each day constantly.
  • I feel excited each day to schedule a completely new task list.
  • The new list forces me only to tick a box if I finish the task. Think about this: I will be less likely to tick off a book title if I haven’t read it, but I will possibly mark “read 30mins” as completed and muddle through other similar tasks.

Now the reading list becomes the core part of my To-Do list, though I certainly have some other chore lists on the side. I try to be minimal—I only keep a short but urgent list in my “Todoist” but leave a complete backup list on my local disk (or other book-recommendation sites).

To make the To-Read list manageable, I divide the list into four sub-sections: “now,” “later,” “maybe,” and “won’t finish,” indicating four different task statuses. I also added labels (or tags) for each item—“psychology,” “philosophy,” “self-help,” “lifestyle,” etc. —these are common category names for books. Still, they also serve a function in my task-labeling system and help me quickly navigate to a specific place.

By now, the tasks have been prepared. The next step is to prioritize these tasks—another key for productivity. But actually, I don’t have any techniques or tricks. I try only to read something if I find it interesting.

Fortunately, my To-Do is not a Must-Do list, and I own flexible control over it. Whenever I tick off items on the list, I know I have finished the reading. In the end, the “To-Read” list automatically turns into a “What-I-Read” list.