The Self-Organizing Todo List Template

TLDR: I built an Airtable todo list template for you that self-organizes by priority and will help you match your actions to your goals and values. Upgrade to a premium subscription to access it and keep yourself on track for 2020!

It’s almost 2020! If you’re like me, that means you’re probably in the middle of reflecting on 2019, and building new systems to help you achieve your goals in the year to come.

Building new systems always comes with tons of choices: what tool should I use? How should the new system be structured? What am I really trying to achieve with what I build? 

There are so many options that you could spend all of 2020 building your system instead of actually achieving your goals.

That’s why I built this Airtable template for you. You can use it as a jumping off point for a kickass todo list for 2020. It’s packed with a bunch of awesome features built in that I think you’ll love. Your new todo list will:

1. Self-organize by priority so that you never have to choose the next thing to get done: just pick the top item off the list and feel confident it’s the right thing to work on next.
2. Let you link your todos to larger Projects so you can track how much progress you’re making on each one.
3. Let you link your todos to your Values so you know you’re acting in alignment with your own personal standards of behavior. 
4. Help you identify and pick off tasks you’re stuck on.
5. Show you tasks that require Deep Work so you know what to do when you have large blocks of time.
6. Show you a Focus view that tells you the highest priority task for each Project so you can filter out the noise and get the most important stuff done. 

Upgrade to premium and get the template for yourself. Or read on for more backstory and a little tour! 

A little backstory

The idea for this Airtable template was inspired by my interview with Maria Salamanca a few weeks ago. She’s a high-powered VC and superorganizer extraordinaire, and she uses a similar self-organizing formula to help her figure out which tasks to work on next. 

In addition to self-organizing by priority, her Airtable todo list also lets her link her todos to her Projects and her Values. This is another powerful idea that I replicated with my own twist in the template I’m sharing with you. 

You see, matching your actions with your priorities is something that comes up over and over again in Superorganizers interviews. Superorganizers of all stripes tend to have a very well defined vision of what they want to achieve, the problem often comes in actually acting out that vision every day.

So that’s what this template is designed to help you with. Not only does it let you link your todos to Projects and Values — it helps you keep track of which ones you’re doing well on, and which ones you’re neglecting.

I hope this template helps you live a superorganized life in 2020. If you want to give it a shot, you can get the template now by clicking here.

If you want to see more, there’s a little tour below.

Self-Organizing Priority View

The base starts with a simple kanban view based on the status of each todo item: Not Started, In Progress, Done, and Stuck. Within each status todo items are sorted by their priority score.