The process starts the night before when I move 3 to 5 task cards by dragging them over to the ‘Today list’. Then they’re waiting for me to jump in on the next morning.

Whenever I finish a task, I drag and drop it onto the “Done” list. And whenever a new task comes up, I collect it in “Todo.”

At the end of the day, I do a quick review to make sure everything “Done” is dragged over, then I archive all cards in the ‘Done list’ by pressing on the meatball menu at the top right and selecting Archive All Cards In This List… (don’t worry, they’re not deleted; you can look at cards you’ve archived later).

The practice of doing this at the end of the day actually motivates me to get things done. Since I’ve gotten into the habit of doing this nightly routine, I’ve noticed that I almost feel guilty when I don’t do the 3 to 5 tasks that I want to get done throughout the day.

I also move incomplete cards that require me to wait on something into “Waiting.” And if I decide to postpone a task indefinitely, I move it into “Later.”

Then I set up for the next day by making sure “Today” is populated with my next to-dos. I scan “Waiting” and “Later,” in case anything there should be moved over.

But what about those things I do that aren’t on my board?

The Anti-To Do list

Andreessen mentions that he uses what he likes to call an ‘Anti-to do list’. I don’t like the name, but the idea behind it is fantastic. The ‘Anti-to do list’ is a list where you write down everything useful that you do throughout the day but never made it onto your core three lists.

I see doing this as rewarding myself for doing something because seeing a task get placed in the ‘Done list’ just feels so damn good.

In fact, with our currently Trello board, we don’t even need to create a new list. Whenever I’ve done anything useful, such as go to the gym, clean my room, or even take the trash out — I simply create a new card under the ‘Done list’.

This works extremely well with Trello because it helps you get into the habit of actually using the app — something I struggled with before using this technique.

That’s the basic workflow, but there are some additional features of cards that are worth noting.