To-do lists are terrible for your health and you should stop treating them as to-do lists right away.
A to-do list is a popular concept, but I believe the approach is flawed.
I used to keep to-do lists for lots of things: books to read, blog posts to write, things to do.
I still create these same lists, but they are no longer to-do lists. I know that I will never read some of the books, that I will never write some of the blog posts, that I will never do some things. But I still write them down and use them as a source of inspiration when I am looking for things to do.
There’s no pressure to check each item off the list. In fact, I don’t cross off items at all. I revisit the same ideas with a new perspective. I combine and shuffle them around.
There’s no order to them. Sometimes the circumstances change priorities. When I look at the list, I choose to act on the items that are the most relevant and that have the biggest impact at that time.
As to-do lists grow ever longer, not being able to get to all the items in the list is not the problem. The problem is thinking that all the items have to be gotten to. They don’t.
Now, you can let that to-do list, perhaps call it something else, grow in size forever. Take from the pool of inspiration but don’t ever drown in it—there’s no need.