When I write stuff down on to-do lists I never forget things on the list. I don't look at the list and check them off after I do them. It doesn't help me get anything done. The items I don't do are memorized on the phone and in my mind, and I still don't do them.

I guess I keep putting stuff in the to-do list on the fear I might forget to do something important, but probably I wouldn't check the to-do list enough to prevent that anyway.

I think the to-do list is probably best if you model yourself as the slave of its author, and you dutifully obey your master. Where the to-do list represents some kind of self-mastery, executive function, command of present self from past. Also liberates you from decision-making in the present.

I don't have that attitude toward to-do lists at all.