This is wonderful!

By the way, about 99% of the productivity lists I've made have indeed been wastes of time, so I think you're on to something. But "to do today", limited to at MOST five items and usually around 3, has been great.

"Come up with the three most important things you need to do that day " That sounds a lot like a list! The difference between writing down three things in the morning vs. memorizing three things each morning escapes me, except maybe the former is less stress. I've found a light "to do today" list actually has real value, followed by lists for work project ideas, restaurants I want to try, and projects I'm currently working on. I'm not 100% sure the last list is useful, but "to do today" is great around 3 o clock when I'm tired and lost in the details of the day, and forgot what I set out to do in the morning. I don't obsess about the tool; right now I'm keeping everything in a lightweight web app called Trello (perhaps you have heard of it :)