Danielle RalstonFounder, How Capacity Works · Founder of ND Hive | Building the productivity hub where work actually gets done | Execution spaces, body doubling & community accountability

If you feel overwhelmed, don’t make a to-do list

16 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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Danielle Ralston suggests skipping the to-do list when you're overwhelmed. Instead, make a "one-do" list with a single task, then celebrate when you finish it. IndieHive calls this the "ta-da" list approach.

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If you're feeling overwhelmed, don't make another to-do list. Make a one-do list. Now, what do I mean by that? It's a quick tip. Because our brains need that little extra dopamine, do a one-do list, meaning you finish one task and celebrate it, because then you have the capability and the motivation and the energy to do that next thing on the list. That's what we're doing here in IndieHive is we're helping you to be able to do that one-do list, to create less to-do lists and more ta-da lists. And if you're not sure what that is, come check us out at indiehive.com and see how we do the ta-da list better.