The 1-3-5 Rule
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The 1-3-5 rule caps your day at nine tasks: one big, three medium, five small. It keeps the list honest. It does not tell you which big task deserves the top slot. That is the part reverse journaling answers.
Use the free tool: the reverse planner
The 1-3-5 rule says: assume you can finish one big thing, three medium things and five small things today, and plan no more than that. Alex Cavoulacos, co-founder of The Muse, wrote it up as a fix for to-do lists that never get finished. Reverse journaling adds the missing step: it starts from the goal written as done and works back, so the one big thing each day is the step that moves that goal.
The short answer
The 1-3-5 rule sets the size of your day. Reverse journaling sets the direction. Use the backward plan to pick the 1, fill the 3 and the 5 with what is left, and give the 1 the first 45 minutes.
Side by side
| Question | 1-3-5 rule | Reverse journaling |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Everything you could do today | The goal written as done, with a date |
| Main output | A list of nine tasks, sorted by size | Milestones back to one step for today |
| Answers | How much can I fit in today? | Which step moves the goal? |
| Time horizon | Today, planned the night before | The goal date back to today |
| Check in | How many of the nine got done? | One line each night |
| Main risk | A big task that does not matter | A good plan with no start time |
Where the rule comes from
Alex Cavoulacos, co-founder of The Muse, described the rule in a Muse article on why to-do lists at work never get finished. Her version: "assume that you can only accomplish one big thing, three medium things, and five small things" in a day. She also suggests writing the next day's list before you leave work, and using smaller numbers on a day full of meetings (source). The method also appears in The New Rules of Work by Cavoulacos and Kathryn Minshew.
How the 1-3-5 rule works
- List what you could do tomorrow. Get it all out of your head first.
- Pick one big thing. The task that would make the day count if it were the only thing you finished.
- Pick three medium things. Real work that takes under an hour or so each.
- Pick five small things. Quick replies, bookings, a form to send.
- Park the rest. Anything else waits for another day's list.
- Shrink it on busy days. A day of meetings might be 1-2-3.
What the research says, carefully
- We plan more than fits. Roger Buehler, Dale Griffin and Michael Ross (1994) found that people tend to underestimate how long their own tasks will take, even when they know similar tasks ran late before. They called it the planning fallacy (source). A fixed cap of nine is one simple guard against it.
- Easy tasks pull us in. Diwas KC, Bradley Staats, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino (2020) studied six years of emergency department data. Under heavy workload, doctors tended to pick easier tasks, and after adjusting for task complexity that was linked to worse throughput (source). Five small tasks are the easy ones. Doing the 1 first keeps them from eating the day.
- A plan quiets the open loop. E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister (2011) found that unfinished goals got in the way of later tasks, and that making a specific plan for the goal removed that effect (source). Writing tomorrow's list tonight is that kind of plan.
- What no one has tested. We found no study of the 1-3-5 rule itself, and none that compares it with reverse journaling. The case for combining them is a reasoned one: one sets the size of the day, the other picks its direction.
Treat these findings as a guide, not a promise. This is a planning habit, not medical or financial advice.
The catch: which task is the 1?
A task can be big and still not matter. Redoing a slide deck nobody asked for is big. If your goal is to change careers by summer, it is not your 1. When the big thing is picked from today's list, the most urgent task wins. When it is picked from a plan that starts at the finish line, the task that moves the goal wins.
How to pick the 1 backward
- Write the goal as done. Past tense, with a date: "On 1 June I started my first job as a UX designer."
- Name the obstacle. What is most likely to stop you? For many people it is the portfolio piece they keep putting off.
- Step back to this week. From the finish, work back through milestones until you reach what must be done by Friday.
- Tonight, choose tomorrow's 1. One step from this week's list, small enough for about 45 minutes. Write when and where you will start it.
- Fill the 3 and the 5. Medium and small tasks from work and life. If one of the 3 also serves the goal, good.
- Do the 1 first. One 45 minute sprint before anything else. Then log one line on your done list.
Example: one day, two ways
Marcus wants to move from teaching into UX design.
- The 1 picked from the list: the biggest thing on tomorrow's list is marking 30 essays. He does it first. It takes the morning. The career change is no closer.
- Goal written as done: "On 1 June I started my first job as a UX designer."
- Backward plan for this week: finish case study one, ask two designers for a short call, update his LinkedIn headline.
- Tomorrow's 1: "6:30 am, desk: write the problem section of case study one."
- Tomorrow's 3: mark 15 essays, plan Thursday's lesson, message one designer.
- Tomorrow's 5: book the dentist, reply to the school office, pay the phone bill, order printer ink, update the headline.
- Tonight's log: "Case study one: problem section done."
The rule did not change. What changed is which task got the top slot.
When the 1-3-5 rule alone is enough
- Your problem is a list that is always too long, not a goal that will not move.
- Your work already tells you what matters most each day.
When to add reverse journaling
- You finish your nine most days and the big goal still has not moved.
- Every task feels like it could be the 1, so you cannot pick.
- You want a nightly habit that sets up tomorrow's first task before you go to bed.
Where this fits in Reverse Journaling
Reverse Journaling starts with the goal written as done, names the obstacle, plans back to today and ends each day with a done log. Tomorrow's first 45 minute step is your 1. If you like daily rules, eat the frog covers doing the hard task first, and time blocking vs backward planning covers putting the 1 on your calendar.
Try it now
Write one goal as done, with a date. Ask what has to be true by Friday for it to happen. Pick one step from that list for tomorrow's 1. Then add three medium and five small tasks, and stop there.
Questions
What is the 1-3-5 rule?
The 1-3-5 rule is a way to plan a realistic day. You assume you can finish one big thing, three medium things and five small things, and you plan no more than that. Alex Cavoulacos, co-founder of The Muse, wrote it up as a fix for to-do lists that never get finished.
Who created the 1-3-5 rule?
Alex Cavoulacos, co-founder of The Muse, described it in a Muse article on why to-do lists at work never get finished. It also appears in The New Rules of Work by Cavoulacos and Kathryn Minshew.
How do I choose the one big thing?
Pick it from your goal, not from your list. Write the goal as done, work back to what must be finished this week, then choose one step from that list that fits in about 45 minutes. That step is tomorrow's big thing.
Does the 1-3-5 rule work?
We found no study of the 1-3-5 rule itself. Research on the planning fallacy shows people tend to underestimate how long their own tasks take, so a fixed cap of nine tasks is a simple guard against overplanning. Treat it as a habit to test, not a promise.
Can I use the 1-3-5 rule with reverse journaling?
Yes. Use the backward plan to pick tomorrow's big thing each night, fill the three medium and five small slots with everything else, do the big thing first in one 45 minute sprint, then log one line on your done list.