Tasks and Habits… Organised

Opening

Welcome to Tasks and Habits… Organised: Guide.

This is the short version of the book. It is written to be listened to in under an hour. It will take you from the idea to a working Todoist project. If you want the full reasoning and the evidence behind it, the Full edition has that. I will point you to it at the end.

Let me start with the change itself.

You want new habits that last. Perhaps it is walking every morning. Perhaps it is reading before bed, or cutting down on screens, or drinking more water. Whatever they are, you have probably tried before. And you have probably found the same thing most people find. You start well. Then life gets busy. A day is missed, then two. Then the habit quietly disappears.

This book treats that as a design problem, not a character flaw. A habit is a small process. It has a cue, an action and a check-in. If the process keeps breaking in the same place, you do not need a stronger will. You need a better design.

So the change is this. You are going to move your habits out of your head, and out of scattered notes and apps, and into one system. Here, that system is Todoist.

Why does that matter? Because being organised is not about tidiness. It is about having the time, calm and confidence to lead your own life.

For you, as the leader of this change, being organised gives you a reliable system that keeps your habits going when your motivation dips. It means there is less to hold in your head. You can see what matters today. You can see what is working. And you can see it without having to remember it.

For the people around you, it gives something too. Your partner, or your family, will know exactly how to help. They will have clear check-ins instead of nagging. That is a better deal for everyone.

There is one more idea that runs through this whole guide. A leader reduces ambiguity. The person who clears up confusion and makes the next step obvious is the one people trust and follow. That is true whether or not you hold any title. In this change, you are the leader. Your job is not to be perfect. It is to make things clear: what the habits are, when they happen, where they are recorded, and what you are asking of others. The Todoist project is how you do that. Every task says what, and when, and who.

One thing before we go on. Todoist is the worked example in this book. The principles work with other apps, and even on paper. If you already use another tool you like, you can follow along with that. The method is what matters.

To make this real, I will use one example all the way through. Imagine a person called Sam. Sam is a made-up character, but the situation will feel familiar. Sam wants to walk every morning, read for fifteen minutes before bed, and stop scrolling in bed. Sam has tried habit apps, paper charts and sticky notes. Each worked for a fortnight. Then a busy week came along, and everything stopped.

Sam’s problem was not laziness. Sam’s habits lived in three different places, and nothing connected them. When life got busy, there was no single place to look, and nobody to notice.

Keep Sam in mind. We will check in with Sam at each stage.

A word on how to use this guide. You can listen once, straight through, to get the shape of it. Then listen again with Todoist open, and build as you go. Each section ends with the tasks to add. If you are listening on a walk, don’t worry. You can add them later from the ebook.

Here is the shape of what follows. First, the goal and the identity you are aiming for. Then we set up a Todoist project, including a small setting called the Habit Tracker. Then we walk through the four stages of the method, which are Discovery, Dream, Design and Defend. After that, the six Cs, which are the shared language you and your supporters will use. We finish with how to lead your people, a few common questions, and your next steps.

Each stage ends with its tasks. By the end, you will have a project that holds the whole plan, and you will know exactly what to do on the first day.

Think of the project as a command centre. Everything about your habits lives there. The plan, the log, the review and the conversations with your partner. When something is in one place, you stop spending energy on remembering where it is. That energy goes back into doing the habit.

Goal and New Identity

Every change needs a goal. Here is ours.

You are someone whose new habits run on a system. Each habit is set up in technology such as Todoist. It is tracked honestly. And it is still in place after twelve months.

Say that again slowly. Set up. Tracked honestly. Still in place after twelve months.

That is the goal. Notice what is not in it. It does not say you never miss a day. It does not say you feel motivated every morning. It says the habit is set up, tracked and still going.

Now the new identity. It is this: you are someone who is on top of all of life’s responsibilities and personal improvements.

Identity matters because it shapes what you do when no one is watching. People who see themselves as organised tend to act in ways that fit that picture. So when a habit slips, you do not say, “I always fail at this.” You say, “I am someone who notices and adjusts.”

Keep that sentence handy. We will come back to it.

Let me make the goal more practical, by giving you a test.

A good goal statement passes three questions. Can you picture it? Can you check it? And can you still say it in twelve months?

Take Sam’s goal. “I walk for ten minutes each morning, and I log it in Todoist.” You can picture that. You can check it, because the task is either ticked or it is not. And it will still make sense next year.

Compare that with “get fitter”. It sounds good, but you cannot picture it, and you cannot check it. A goal you cannot check will quietly drift.

So take a minute now. Say your goal out loud, in one sentence. Each habit is set up in technology such as Todoist, tracked honestly, and still in place after twelve months. Then add your own habits to the sentence.

Now the identity. It helps to act as if the new identity is already true. Someone who is on top of life’s responsibilities and personal improvements does small, boring things. They write the plan down. They check it. They tell someone when it goes wrong.

You do not need to feel like that person yet. You only need to do what that person does. The feeling follows the action, not the other way round.

Here is why identity needs action behind it. Your belief that you can handle what comes at you is one of the strongest foundations you can have, and it is built by doing. Psychologists call this self-efficacy, and the main source of it is mastery: doing something hard, getting through it, and seeing the proof (Bandura, 1977). Each habit you keep, even a small one, is a piece of proof. It belongs to you. Other people will come and go in your life, and the good feelings from big events tend to fade. Research on marriage, for example, found that the average boost in life satisfaction was small and faded over time (Lucas and others, 2003). Skills, discipline and routines are different. They stay with you. So build the foundation on purpose. And keep your supporters close, because they make the journey easier. But the system is yours.

One caution. An identity is not a promise of perfection. Organised people still have bad weeks. The difference is that they have a way back.

Setting Up the Project

Now we will build the project. You can do this while you listen, or pause and do it afterwards. It takes about ten minutes.

If you are new to Todoist, I have a small request. I would really appreciate it if you signed up for Todoist through my affiliate link, which you will find on my website, ravi8.com. If my introducing you to Todoist helps you become more organised, using my link helps make all the effort I have put into these books worthwhile. Disclosure: this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Step one. Switch on the Habit Tracker. In Todoist, click your avatar, open Settings, choose Integrations, then Browse. Select Habit Tracker, click Add, then Confirm. According to Todoist’s help pages, it is available on the Beginner, Pro and Business plans, on the web and on macOS, Windows and Linux. Please enable it. It records a streak and a completion history for your recurring tasks, and it is how we will track check-ins and streaks later, in the Defend stage.

Step two. Create a new project. Name it Organise Habits. A clear name matters, because you will see it every day.

Step three. Add four tasks, in order. Discovery, Dream, Design and Defend. These are the four Ds. We will go through each one shortly. Keeping the order means the list reads like a route map.

Step four. Under each of the four tasks, you will add smaller tasks. In Todoist, these are sub-tasks. They sit indented beneath their parent, so the whole project reads like an outline. I will give you the sub-tasks as we reach each stage, so you can add them one stage at a time. When all the sub-tasks are done, you can tick off the stage. That small moment of finishing is useful. It tells you that you are making progress.

Step five. Give each stage a rough date. Not a strict deadline. Just a sensible target. Dates turn a list into a plan.

Step six. Use the task description box for the Habit Design Card, which we will meet under Discovery. As far as I can tell, Todoist has no separate notes section, so the description is the simplest home for that kind of detail. One caution. The Habit Tracker writes to the description of any task it tracks. So keep your card on its own task, and put extra notes in comments.

Now, a few honest limits. A habit in Todoist is a recurring task. You can type it in plain English. If you type “Walk for ten minutes every day at 7:30”, Todoist understands the repeat and the time. Then you open the task and choose Track habit from its menu. That is all it takes.

If you are wondering whether to use one project or many, start with one. You can always split it later. A simple system you use beats a clever one you abandon.

Todoist changes its screens and plans from time to time. If a step looks different on your device, the Todoist Help Center will show you the current way. This guide is about the why and the order, not every tap.

The Four Ds

The method has four stages. We call them the four Ds. In order, they are Discovery, Dream, Design and Defend.

The method comes from two places. The first is process mining. That is a way of finding out what is really happening in a process by looking at records, rather than relying on memory or opinion. The second is change management, which is about helping people move from one way of working to a better one. Put them together and you get a simple loop. Look at what you really do. Say where you are going. Design the change. Then move, and keep watching.

Here is Sam again. Sam has just created the project and added the four stage tasks. It took eight minutes. For the first time in months, all of Sam’s habits are visible in one place. Nothing has changed yet. But the foundation is there.

A rule that runs through every stage. Do them in order. It is tempting to jump to Design, because that is where the apps and the reminders are. But Design without Discovery is guesswork. You end up designing for the person you imagine you are, not the person you really are.

Discovery

The purpose of Discovery is to find out what you actually do, rather than what you think you do. We build the log, map what really happens, notice what already works, and find where it breaks.

This is where most people skip ahead, and it is where the best insights hide. Memory is a poor record keeper. We remember intentions better than actions. If you ask someone how often they exercise, they will usually give an answer that sounds like their best weeks. That is not dishonesty. It is how memory works. So we gather the evidence.

In process mining, you look for three things. The case, the activities and the time. For a habit, the case is one habit on one day. The activities are things like the reminder, the cue, the action, the check-in, the missed day and the restart. And the time is when each one happened. Put those together and you have a log of your habit.

Start with what already works. Note it, and note why. Maybe your morning routine is solid, and a habit attached to it survives. That is gold. You will build on it.

One more thing to discover is where your time and attention really go. Start with the data, not the guilt. Most phones have a screen time report. Look at it. A neuroscientist, Sahar Yousef, makes a helpful comparison. We check our health with an annual blood test. We rarely check our attention. So take a look at the numbers. There is no shame in them. These apps are built by experts to hold your attention. It is no surprise that they do.

Here is the first thing to know. The default settings on most apps are designed to maximise engagement. They are not designed to maximise your goals. The sounds, the buzzes, the infinite scroll with no stopping point. All of it is tested. Yousef’s line is worth remembering: you deserve better than the default settings. You can change them. We will, in Design.

Here is the second thing. You may have seen posts about cheap dopamine. Let me correct the science. Dopamine is not a pleasure chemical. Research by Kent Berridge and Terry Robinson links it closely to wanting, the pull towards something, rather than to enjoying it. That is why you can keep reaching for your phone after you have stopped enjoying it. The useful idea inside the myth is this. Rewards that are quick, easy and always in reach pull harder than rewards that are slow and take effort. That is not a character flaw. It is how motivation works. So the answer is design, not shame.

Here is the third thing. Look at where your attention gets cut up. Try a quick test. Write the sentence “I am a great multitasker” on one line. Then write the numbers one to twenty on a second line. Time yourself. Now do it again, but swap between the lines, letter, number, letter, number. Time that too. Most people are noticeably slower the second time, and it feels more tiring. Yousef reports around forty per cent of the speed in her demonstration. Yours will differ, and one try is not a study. But the effect is well known. Every switch has a cost. Part of the cost is called attention residue. Researcher Sophie Leroy found that part of your mind stays on the last task. So before you switch, write down the next step. That gives you closure, and the thought can rest.

Here is a simple rule of thumb on time, and it is only that. Aim for most of your free time, roughly eighty per cent, to go on the slower, worthwhile things. Let the quick-reward things be the smaller share, up to about twenty per cent. This is not research. It is a guide to help you notice. And it is not a reason for shame. A drink at the weekend, or some junk food now and then, is part of life. The point is to see the pattern honestly.

One last thing to notice. When a task feels uncomfortable, the exit is a tap away. Boredom, worry and overwhelm are all uncomfortable, and a phone is a very fast way out. In one well-known set of experiments, led by psychologist Timothy Wilson, many people chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than sit alone with their thoughts for a few minutes. So if you reach for your phone halfway through a habit, you are normal. Note it. Compassion first. Then design around it.

There is one more task to add under Discovery. It is called the Habit Design Card. Put these seven lines in its description. The habit: what exactly you will do. The cue: the moment that triggers it. The time and place. The starting size: the smallest version that still counts. The reminder. The partner: who you will tell when it slips. And the review date. You will fill one in for each habit.

Sam’s Discovery. Sam found that the walk had happened on about half the mornings over the past month, and that reading mostly happened on nights when the phone was already in another room. The break point was Friday evenings. Sam had tried four apps, and dropped each because the reminders arrived at the wrong time. And Sam’s phone buzzed with reminders from three different apps, so Sam had learned to ignore all of them.

Dream

The purpose of Dream is to set out what success looks like, what it will take, and who needs to know.

This is the planning stage. And planning matters more than most of us admit. Without a plan, our attention goes wherever the loudest thing in the room happens to be. A plan is a deal with your future self. The you who plans, with a clear head, decides what matters. Then the you who lives through a tired Wednesday afternoon does not have to decide from scratch.

Choose a time for planning and protect it. Some people plan on Monday morning, for the week ahead. Some prefer Sunday evening. Others like Friday afternoon, while the week is fresh. Any of these works. The moment matters less than having one. A mission without a plan is a plan to fail. But planning once is not enough. Success comes from planning and monitoring, continuously.

Your tasks under Dream. There are seven.

First, write the new identity in your own words. Start with “I am someone who”. Keep it about actions you could check. “I am someone who writes the plan down and looks at it” is better than “I am a disciplined person”.

Before the tasks, two questions that give the dream its direction. First, what is your Everest? Think of the long-term thing you want, in a few years. One way to find it is to picture yourself very old, looking back. What do you need to have done, to say, it has been a good life? It is a strong question, and only you can answer it. Take it gently. Then ask what the habits on your list have to do with it. If the answer is nothing, they probably do not belong.

Second, how do you choose what to do each day? Pick one, two or at most three most important tasks. Ask, what will my future self thank me for? Those are your anchors. Everything else fits around them. In Todoist, you can give those few tasks your top priority flag. It is the same idea as one habit at a time.

And think in pedals, not podiums. British cycling coach Dave Brailsford is said to have asked his riders to focus on the day’s work, not the podium. Aim at the pedals. Today’s cue, today’s small step. The outcome follows.

Second, define the habits that matter most over the next twelve months. Pick a few, not a dozen. A useful test is to ask, “If this were still in place in a year, would I be glad?”

Third, estimate the daily time each habit needs. Add up the minutes. Be honest. Ten minutes that you actually do beats thirty that you do not. If your habits need two hours a day and you have forty minutes, you have found a problem before it began. That is a good result.

Fourth, decide which tools you will use, such as Todoist. The rule is that one place holds the plan. Other tools can feed it, but they should not compete with it.

Fifth, name an accountability partner. Pick someone who is kind but honest. Not a cheerleader and not a critic. Someone who asks, “How did it go?” and listens to the answer.

Sixth, set a date to review. Put it in Todoist as a task with a date. A review date you only keep in your head is a wish.

And seventh, communicate the dream to your accountability partner and your household. Tell them what you are doing and why. When you tell people, three things happen. They understand why your mornings look different. They can help. And you have made a small public commitment, which makes you a little more likely to follow through.

Sam’s Dream. Sam wrote, “I am someone who walks and reads, and checks it off.” Sam chose three habits, and wrote the time for each: ten minutes walking, fifteen reading, and a phone left outside the bedroom. Total: about half an hour a day. Sam named a sister as the accountability partner, set a review for four weeks ahead, and told the household.

Design

The purpose of Design is to build the new process. A few well-chosen changes, not a total overhaul.

The key idea is to make the habit easy to start and hard to forget. Link it to something you already do. After I pour my morning coffee, I walk for ten minutes. That kind of plan, “when this happens, I will do that”, has good research support for helping people follow through.

Your tasks under Design are five.

First, set up each habit in Todoist with a cue, a time and a reminder, tracked through the Habit Tracker integration. A habit is a recurring task. Type it in plain English. Then open it and choose Track habit. A good cue is a moment that already happens every day. Making tea. Brushing teeth. Closing the laptop. Write the task name as an action. “Walk to the end of the road” is better than “Exercise”. You should be able to do it without making a decision. And choose a reminder time that matches your real life, not your ideal life. If you are never ready at seven, do not set seven.

Second, choose features that support each habit. That means recurring tasks, reminders, Habit Tracker streaks and the calendar. Todoist has many other features, including labels, filters and different views. You do not need them all. Add more only when you feel a real need. Here is a streak warning. The Habit Tracker resets your streak if you miss a due date, postpone or reschedule. For some people a streak is a nudge. For others it becomes pressure. Watch which you are.

Third, start each habit small. Make it so small it feels almost silly. Walk to the end of the street. Read one page. If you do more, wonderful. If not, it still counts. Small habits survive bad days. Big ones do not.

Fourth, design a weekly review in the app. Make it a recurring task on the day you chose when you dreamed. In it, ask three questions. What went well? What got in the way? What one thing will I change?

Fifth, link new habits to existing routines.

A note on rewards, and on your phone. Yousef describes how the food industry hooked us on sugar. It made food more stimulating, easier to reach, and less filling. Technology followed the same recipe. Bright icons and short clips raise the stimulation. The infinite scroll removes the friction. And the feed offers the feeling of connection, without meeting the need. You can reverse each step.

Reduce the stimulation. Turn your phone to grayscale in its settings. Yousef reports that people in her lab spent about an hour less a day on their phones after three weeks. That is her report, so treat it as a promising idea to test, not a promise. Turn off notifications you do not need.

Increase the friction. Put the phone out of sight when you are doing a habit. Park it in another room at night. Sam left the phone downstairs, which made reading easier than scrolling. Do not keep sweets in your pocket.

Increase the filling. Meet the real need behind the scroll. If you want connection, call someone or see them. If you want novelty, learn something properly. Then the scroll tempts you less.

And set up a short list of exceptions. Let your accountability partner and a few others through, as VIPs, so you never fear missing something important. Everything else can wait.

Finally, make the worthwhile choice the close one. Put the cue in plain sight. Make the first step tiny. And make the tick itself a small reward. In the Habit Tracker, the streak is a small, immediate reward that stands in for a large, distant one. You are not fighting your own nature. You are rearranging the room.

Some habits need real attention, such as writing, studying or planning. For those, use a focus sprint. It has five steps. One, block the time in your calendar in advance. Two, decide the exact output, and break it into small timed pieces, so you never have to wonder what is next. Three, remove obstacles, with the phone out of sight and notifications off. Four, set a timer. Work tends to expand to fill the time you give it, and a ticking clock helps. Five, take a real break. A walk outside, or doing nothing at all, rests the mind more than scrolling does. A sprint is not a habit. It is a way to give a habit your full attention.

Timing matters too. People differ in when their energy peaks. Some are sharpest early. Some are sharpest in the afternoon or evening. The science of these body-clock types is real, though the exact shares of people in each vary between sources. So notice your own pattern. Put demanding habits in your best hours, and easy ones in your dips. And protect your sleep. Adult guidance is seven or more hours a night, and without it every habit gets harder.

One useful detail. If you complete an overdue recurring task in Todoist, it skips the missed days rather than piling them up. That is kind. But it can hide how often you missed. So if a day is missed, say so in the task comments, or in your weekly review. Honest data is what makes the next change better.

Sam’s Design. Sam attached the walk to making tea, and the reading to plugging the phone in downstairs. Both started tiny: five minutes and one page. Sam switched on the Habit Tracker for each, and turned off two of the three reminder apps, keeping only Todoist.

Defend

The purpose of Defend is to move people, yourself included, and then keep watching so the change lasts. Things drift. Without attention, any new habit slowly gives way to the old routine. So Defend has two halves. Moving, and monitoring.

Change is not only about tools. It is about people, and people move through stages. One helpful model is called ADKAR. It stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. In plain terms: you need to see why, want to, know how, be able to, and have it stick. If a habit is failing, ask which of those five is missing. Often it is not desire. It is ability, because the habit is too big. Another idea is that between the old way and the new way there is an awkward middle. It feels messy there. That is normal. Expect it, and do not read it as proof that the change is wrong.

Your tasks under Defend. There are nine. First, the moving tasks.

Run ADKAR on yourself. Ask the five questions about each habit.

Onboard one habit at a time. This is the most important rule in the book. Two weeks of one habit beats two weeks of five.

Enlist a partner or a shared list. Todoist lets you share a project, so a partner can see it and comment.

Use reminders without overload. One good reminder beats five ignored ones.

Log check-ins honestly. Tick it when it is done. Note it when it is not. A short comment like “tired, did two minutes” is better than silence. This is where the Habit Tracker earns its place. It keeps your streak and your history, so your log tells the truth.

Now the monitoring tasks.

Review app statistics monthly. Make it a recurring task. Which habits held? Which ones slipped? Did it get easier, harder or stay the same? Check your screen time, too. And ask one more question. Which minutes do I regret? Not the treats. The lost hours that left you with nothing. Then go back to Discovery, and look again.

Plan for lapses and restarts. They will happen. When one does, do not replay the story. Telling yourself again and again that you have ruined it only strengthens the story. Acknowledge it, then redirect your attention to the next small step. Decide the restart rule now. Mine is simple: the next day, at half size. No catching up, and no apologies. Remember that the Habit Tracker will reset the streak. That is information, not failure.

Archive habits that no longer serve you. Retiring a habit is not failing. It is good housekeeping.

And tune your reminders as your life changes. A reminder that once helped can become noise. Change the time, change the wording, or remove it.

Sam’s Defend. Sam started with the walk only. After three weeks it felt steady, so reading was added. Sam texted the sister each Sunday with a one-line update, and shared the project so the sister could see the ticks. At the first monthly review, Sam noticed that the walk was solid but Friday evenings still caused trouble. Sam moved Friday reading to the weekend, and felt no guilt. The system had done its job: it showed what needed to change.

That is the four Ds. Discovery, Dream, Design and Defend. If you have added all the tasks, you now have a project that holds the whole method.

The Six Cs

Now the manner. The four Ds are your method as the leader. The six Cs are the shared language that you and your supporters both use while the change happens. They are Compassion, Communication, Capacity, Commitment, Consideration and Consistency.

Here is each one for this change, and how you, as the leader, can model it.

Compassion. A missed day is information, not failure. Restart without guilt. As the leader, when you miss a day, say so calmly. “I missed yesterday. I will pick it up today.” Your people will learn from how you treat yourself.

Communication. Tell your accountability partner when a habit slips, and why. Say it in the agreed place, usually the shared Todoist project. Do it early. As the leader, you go first. If you hide your slips, no one else will share theirs.

Capacity. Start each habit at a size that fits your real day. As the leader, show it. Say, “I am only doing five minutes this week, because it is a busy one.” That gives others permission to be realistic too.

Commitment. Check in honestly in Todoist, even on bad days. As the leader, log the bad days as well as the good. A true record is what makes this system work.

Consideration. Shared routines affect the household. Agree changes before you make them. As the leader, ask first. If your new habit means a different breakfast or a quieter evening, talk it through before it happens.

Consistency. Same cue, same time, every day, until the habit runs itself. As the leader, protect the routine. Keep the cue the same. Resist changing the plan every week.

Notice how these work together. Compassion keeps you going after a miss. Communication keeps others informed. Capacity keeps the habit achievable. Commitment keeps the record honest. Consideration keeps the household on side. And Consistency does the quiet work of making it automatic.

Let me show how each C can go wrong, and how to put it right.

When Compassion is missing, a single missed day turns into a week. You feel you have already failed, so why bother? Put it right by naming the miss, and doing the next one.

When Communication is missing, your partner finds out late or not at all. They feel shut out, or they guess wrong. Put it right with a short message, early. “Missed it. Busy day. Back on tomorrow.”

When Capacity is missing, the habit is too large. You start strong and burn out. Put it right by halving the habit.

When Commitment is missing, the log becomes a fiction. You tick things that did not happen. Then the review is useless. Put it right by logging honestly, however small.

When Consideration is missing, the household pays the price. A noisy early alarm, a changed dinner time, a shared space taken over. Put it right by asking first.

When Consistency is missing, the cue keeps changing. The habit never becomes automatic. Put it right by fixing the cue and the time, and leaving them alone for a few weeks.

Pick the C you find hardest. Write it on a note where you will see it. Practise that one first.

Leading Your People

You are not doing this alone. Others are affected, and others can help.

For this change, the people who matter most are your accountability partner and the members of your household who share your lists. They are your supporters.

There is a short companion called Tasks and Habits… Organised: Support. It is written for them. It runs under ten minutes. It explains what is changing, what it gives them, the six Cs in plain terms, and what you would like them to do. It has five dos and five don’ts. And it shows them how to use the shared project.

Give it to them early. Ideally before you start, or in your first week. Say something like, “This is a ten-minute listen. It explains what I am doing and how you can help. There is nothing you have to do afterwards except what feels fair.”

How to share it. It is available as an audiobook and an ebook, so they can choose. Some people like to listen on a walk. Others like to read. Let them pick.

Then share the project itself. In Todoist, you can invite people to a shared project by name or email. They can see the tasks, add their own, and tick things off. You can assign a task to one person, and they will be notified. And you can use comments to talk about a task, right where it lives.

Here is a simple way to start the conversation. You might say, “I am working on a few habits, and I am setting up a system to keep them going. I would love ten minutes of your time. I will share a short listen that explains it. You do not need to do anything difficult. I would just like you to be on my side.”

Then listen. They may have worries. A household member may fear that your new routine will take over the evenings. Your accountability partner may worry about being the bad cop. These are fair, and they are the kind of thing that Consideration is for. Ask what would make it easier for them, and write down the answer in the shared project. A shared task called “Things we agreed” is a good place.

Be thoughtful about what you share. You do not have to share the whole project. You might share just the habits you want help with. Check with each person. Consideration is one of the six Cs, after all.

One more thing. Thank them. Often. People who feel appreciated keep supporting. People who feel nagged do not.

Your main job as a leader of this change is to reduce ambiguity. Before you ask people for anything, ask yourself three questions. Is it clear what I want? Is it clear by when? Is it clear where we will record it? If any answer is no, fix that first. Vague asks create worry. Clear asks create trust.

In practice, that means plain words. Say, “Please ask me on Sunday evenings how the week went”, not “Keep me accountable”. Put agreed things in the shared Todoist project, so nobody has to guess or remember. When something changes, say so early. And when you do not know yet, say that too. “I am not sure yet, and I will tell you by Friday” is clear. Silence is not.

People follow whoever makes things clearer, whatever their title. So be that person.

Let me say a little about timing and tone.

Introduce the change before you start, not after. When people hear about a change after it has already begun, they feel it was done to them. When they hear first, they feel included.

Say what the change is, and why it matters to you. Then say what it gives them. Remember that for supporters, it is clarity and fewer surprises. Then say what you are asking, and what you are not.

Be clear that you are not asking them to police you. Their role is to be kind and to be there. If you make them a referee, they will resent it.

Agree a check-in rhythm. Weekly is usually enough. Ten minutes, at a set time. What went well, what did not, and is there anything you need.

Keep your side of the bargain. If you ask for honesty, receive it well. If your partner says a routine is getting in their way, listen. That is the Consideration C, working in both directions.

When the project is shared, keep it tidy. A shared project that is cluttered with half-finished ideas becomes noise. Keep it to what people need to see.

And finally, remember that supporters have their own lives. They may forget. They may be busy. A gentle prompt is fine. Resentment is not.

A Week With the System

Let me show you what a normal week looks like once the project is running. Sam’s week is a good example.

On Sunday evening, Sam sits down for ten minutes. This is the weekly plan. Sam opens the Organise Habits project and looks at last week. The walk was ticked on five of seven days. Reading on four. The streak on the walk was reset on Friday. Sam does not groan. Sam adds a comment, “Friday, long day, skipped”, and moves on. Then Sam asks the three questions. What went well? The walk, because of the tea cue. What got in the way? Friday evening. What one thing will change? Reading moves to Saturday morning on Fridays.

On Monday morning, the walk reminder arrives at seven thirty. It is ten minutes. Sam ticks it when it is done. The Habit Tracker adds one to the streak and records the date in the comments.

On Wednesday, Sam is tired and skips the reading. Sam does not wait until Thursday to decide what it means. Sam leaves a one-line comment, “tired”, and keeps the walk going. The restart rule is simple. The next day, at half size.

On Thursday, Sam sends the sister a short text. “Missed reading yesterday, tired. Back on tonight.” Sam does not explain at length. That is Communication, in one line.

On Saturday, Sam checks Todoist’s Upcoming view. A family event is booked for next weekend. Sam adjusts, and decides now that the walk will be five minutes that day. That is Capacity, planned ahead.

Notice what is missing from this week. There is no heroic effort. There is no guilt. There is no long conversation about willpower. There is a short plan, a simple log, an honest note when something slips, and a small adjustment. That is what a system looks like when it is working.

Your week will look different. Your cues will be different, and so will your habits. But the shape is the same. Plan briefly. Log honestly. Adjust a little. Tell someone when it slips.

Common Questions

Before we finish, here are answers to questions people often ask.

What if I have no time? Then your habits are too big, or your list is too long. Go back to Dream. Cut the list to one habit and halve its size. One small habit that runs is worth more than five that don’t.

What if I forget to check Todoist? Then make it part of an existing routine. Open it when you make your morning drink, or when you sit down at your desk. Checking the app is itself a habit, so give it a cue.

What if I hate being reminded? Then use fewer reminders. Some people do well with one time-based reminder a day. Others prefer to look at their list at set moments. Neither is wrong. Test, and keep what works.

What if my partner is not interested? Then don’t force it. You can still do everything in this guide alone. Ask only for a weekly ten minutes, and invite them again later if you like. Pressure tends to push people away.

Is it selfish to put my own habits first? No. Building your own foundation is not the same as shutting other people out. Your habits make you more reliable, calmer and more available to the people around you. Agree changes with your household first, which is Consideration, and let your supporters share in the progress. But do not wait for anyone else’s permission, or for someone else to build the system for you.

What if I miss two weeks? Then you are in the neutral zone between old and new, and it is normal. Use the restart rule. Next day, half size. Then note in your review what happened, without blame.

What if I prefer a different app? Then use it. The four Ds and six Cs do not depend on Todoist. What matters is that there is one place that holds the plan, and that you look at it.

How does the Habit Tracker fit in? It sits in the Defend stage. When you tick a tracked habit, it adds to your streak and writes the history into the task comments. When you miss, it resets. That gives you a clean log with no extra effort. Remember its limits. It works with daily or specific recurring dates. It does not pause for holidays. And it uses the task description, so keep your own notes elsewhere. Check Todoist’s help page for the latest details.

What if the streak makes me anxious? Then do not treat it as a score. Treat it as a record. Some people find a long streak motivating. Others find a reset crushing. If you are the second kind, look at the history in the comments instead, and judge yourself by the pattern over a month, not by one number.

Is Todoist free? It has a free plan and paid plans, and the details change. According to Todoist’s help pages, the Habit Tracker is available on the Beginner, Pro and Business plans. Check Todoist’s own pricing page for what each includes, and start with whichever plan covers your needs.

How long until a habit sticks? Nobody can say for sure. Research found a wide range between people and habits, so judge by whether the habit is getting easier, not by counting days.

Next Steps

You have reached the end of the guide. Here is what to do next.

Today, create the project and add the four stage tasks. Switch on the Habit Tracker. That takes ten minutes.

Let me turn the rest into a four-week plan.

Week one. Complete Discovery. Gather your evidence. Note what already works. Start your log, and fill in a Habit Design Card for each habit.

Week two. Complete Dream. Write your identity sentence. Choose your habits and their size. Name your partner, set your review date, and tell your household.

Week three. Complete Design. Set up your first habit, small, and switch on tracking for it. Give your partner the Support edition, and share the project with them.

Week four. Start Defend. Keep the first habit going. Hold your first weekly review. Check in with your partner.

After that, add one new habit at a time, and hold your first monthly review at the end of the first month. Then return to Discovery, and look again. The loop never ends, and that is the point.

If you slip, and you probably will, use the restart rule. The next day, at half size.

Remember Sam. Sam did not become a different person. Sam simply moved from memory to a system, and let the system do the remembering.

For the full reasoning, the research, the case study and the sources behind all of this, read Tasks and Habits… Organised: Full. It goes deeper on each stage, and it will help you if you want to adapt the method.

If you are new to Todoist, here is that request again. I would really appreciate it if you signed up for Todoist through my affiliate link, which you will find on my website, ravi8.com. If my introducing you to Todoist helps you become more organised, using my link helps make all the effort I have put into these books worthwhile. Disclosure: this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

You can continue learning at ravi8.com. That is ravi, the number eight, dot com.

Before you press stop, do one small thing now. Open Todoist, and add a task called “Create the Organise Habits project”. Give it a date of today. Then, when you finish this guide, tick it off. That one tick is the first entry in your log, and the first proof that you are someone whose habits run on a system.

Thank you for listening. Be kind to yourself. A missed day is information, not failure. Now go and set up your project.