Stop optimizing your backlog
By Jacob McDaniel
Look at the last decade of productivity software and you will notice every tool is competing on the same axis: who can help you manage your pile of undone work better. Better filters on the backlog. Smarter sorting of the backlog. Prettier boards for the backlog. AI to triage the backlog. It is an arms race, and the prize is a more beautifully organized list of things you have not done.
We think the premise is wrong. The backlog is not the thing worth optimizing. A backlog is, by definition, infinite. Work generates work. The list will never be empty, so any tool whose central promise is "tame the list" has signed you up for a game with no win condition. You can be the most organized you have ever been and still close the laptop feeling like you lost.
The metric is the message
What a tool measures is what it teaches you to care about. When the home screen is a count of open items, the lesson, repeated every single day, is that your worth is the size of your debt. That is a strange thing to build a daily habit around. Nobody opens a fitness app to be shown only the workouts they skipped.
So we picked a different metric. ToDidIt optimizes the other side of the ledger: what you finished. The backlog still exists, because of course it does, but it is not the headline. The headline is the work you closed, the progress you made, the streak you are on. Same data, opposite emphasis, completely different feeling.
This is not a productivity hack
We are not claiming you will do more if you stop staring at your backlog. Maybe you will, maybe you will not. The point is not output. The point is that the tool you live in all day should not be a guilt machine. You already know what is left. You do not need an app to remind you, in red, forever. You need something that occasionally tells you the truth about what you have already pulled off.
That is the whole stance, and it is why ToDidIt exists. If you want the longer argument, the founding essay lays it out, and the science of finishing covers why the feeling holds up under research. Stop optimizing the pile. Start noticing the progress.
Frequently asked questions
Why does ToDidIt say not to optimize your backlog?
Because a backlog is infinite. Work generates work, so the list will never be empty, and any tool whose promise is taming the list has set up a game with no win condition. You can be perfectly organized and still feel like you lost.
What does ToDidIt optimize instead?
The other side of the ledger: what you finished. The backlog still exists, but it is not the headline. The headline is the work you closed, the progress you made, and the streak you are on.
Is this a productivity hack to make me do more?
No. The claim is not about output. The point is that the tool you live in all day should not be a guilt machine reminding you in red of what is left, when you already know what is left.
Does the backlog go away?
No. The backlog still exists, because of course it does. It is the same data as any other task app, just with the opposite emphasis, which produces a completely different feeling.