I don't think I'd get any work done without my todo lists. Here's what works for me:
- Make the list a manageable size. I find more than 30 or so items overwhelming.
- Never let the list run out. I add new items constantly. The last ten or so items all read 'Expand this item: (some high level feature that can be broken down)'
- Mix easy and hard items. Striking an item off the list is satisfying, so make sure that after a particularly hard item, you can breeze through two or three more.
- If you're encountering a lot of hard items, spend some time expanding then into separate line items.
- At the end of the day, don't give into that temptation to polish off the easy item at the top of the list. Otherwise you'll work your way through a couple more easy items and end up having to start the day at a hard one.
- Have a visible backlog of your completed items. It's satisfying when you feel like you aren't making progress.
- Always attack the list in order. If you find yourself needing to move items around to satisfy dependencies, go right ahead, but if you skip and item because you just don't feel like working on it, at the end of the project you'll have a whole list of items you don't feel like working on.