How it works
The 1-3-5 rule comes from The Muse: accept that on a given day you can get "one big thing, three medium things, and five small things done", and keep the list to those nine. This page gives the rule a shape. Today is nine slots: one big, three medium, five small. You fill a slot by writing something new or picking from the pool, and there's no tenth slot to add to.
Big, medium and small are your call. The Muse's example is a form that takes 15 minutes against a strategy that takes a few hours; our rough guide is hours, about an hour, and minutes. Leave a slot or two blank if your day tends to fill itself: Alex Cavoulacos suggests one medium and two small.
Plan tomorrow the evening before, as she recommends, and it becomes today's list when the day turns (at midnight, or up to 5 AM if you choose). Anything you didn't finish goes back to the pool with its size, without fuss.
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Questions people ask
- What is the 1-3-5 rule?
- It's a way to keep a daily to-do list finite: plan one big thing, three medium things and five small things, and nothing more. The Muse, which published it in 2013, puts it this way: "keep your daily to-do list to just those nine items."
- Who came up with the 1-3-5 rule?
- The Muse, the careers site, published it in April 2013 and credits its founder and president, Alex Cavoulacos; her book with Kathryn Minshew, The New Rules of Work (2017), includes a 1-3-5 worksheet. We found no earlier source for it.
- How do I know if a task is big, medium or small?
- There's no official rule; it's your estimate. The Muse's own example is a form that takes 15 minutes against a strategy that takes a few hours. Guides disagree on exact times, so this list shows a rough guide (hours, about an hour, minutes) and lets you decide.
- Do I have to fill all nine slots?
- No. Alex Cavoulacos suggests leaving one medium and two small slots blank if your days bring unexpected requests, and a day counts as done here when everything you did put on it is done.
- What happens to things I don't finish?
- They go back to the pool when the day turns, keeping their size, and wait there until you pick them for another day. If you planned tomorrow the night before, that plan becomes today's list.