Printable to-do list
One list, one page. Give it a name, write a task on each row with the next action beside it, and print it with an empty box to tick with a pen. No days, no calendar, no weekly grid — if you want a list for tomorrow, print another one. Your list stays in your browser on this device, so a closed tab does not lose it.
- Your list stays in your browser
- Prints on A4, with a box to tick by hand
Nothing written yet. This list stays in your browser’s storage on this device, so a closed tab does not lose it. Nothing is uploaded — there is no server to upload it to. Clearing your browser data removes it.
To-do list
How it works
- 1
Name the list
The title is the only thing that scopes the sheet, and it takes whatever you want it to mean — "Monday", "Groceries", "Before the flight", "Handover". There is deliberately no date field and no calendar here, because a list that carries a date starts asking to be planned rather than done. If you want a list for tomorrow, you print another one, and the title is where you say which is which.
- 2
Write one task per row, as a next action
A row that says "Website" is a topic, and a topic can never be finished — you will still be looking at it next week. A row that says "Send Aida the two logo files" is something you either did or did not do, and it takes a second to decide which. Rows move up and down, duplicate, and delete, so ordering the list is part of writing it. Leave rows empty if you would rather write the whole thing by hand: an empty row prints as a ruled line with a box on it.
- 3
Put the next move in the Action column
The second column is a short note beside the task, and the most useful thing to put there is whatever you would otherwise have to go and look up: the phone number, the name of the person who is waiting, the file, the shelf, the time it has to be done by. It also works as a status — "waiting on the invoice", "after the 3pm call" — which is how a paper list tells you why something has been sitting there for two days.
- 4
Print it, or save it as a PDF
Press Print and either send it to a printer or choose "Save as PDF" in the dialog. The preview on the right is the page that comes out: it is measured and split into A4 sheets here, so you can see where it breaks before you print it. Every box prints empty, and the rows carry enough line height that you can add something at the end of a line with a pen without it looking cramped.
Planning a whole week rather than a day? The weekly planner is the structured one — seven days, a time column, status tags and templates for content, meals or study. This page is for the short list you print and tick off.
Frequently asked questions
Why print a to-do list when my phone has an app?
Because paper does a few things a screen does not. A printed list sits open on the desk without being unlocked, opened or scrolled, and nothing on it can notify you about something else. It cannot quietly grow either — the page ends, which is a limit an app never imposes. And it is finished when the last box is ticked, which is a thing you can see from across the room. None of that makes paper better in general; it makes it better for a short list you intend to get through today. For anything you need to search, sync or share, an app wins and this page will not pretend otherwise.
Can I tick tasks off on the screen?
No, and that is the point rather than a missing feature. The boxes are drawn on the page, not wired to anything, because the whole tool exists to be printed and marked by hand. Making them clickable would immediately raise the question of what a ticked task should print as, and the only honest answer is still an empty box: a list you have already crossed off is a record, not a list. Keeping the boxes inert means the sheet you print is always the sheet you are about to work through.
Is my list saved anywhere I cannot see?
It is kept in this browser’s local storage on this device, so building a list over a morning and closing the tab does not lose it. It is never transmitted anywhere — this site is static files with no server behind it, and the page keeps working with the internet disconnected. Clearing your browser data removes the list, "Start over" removes it immediately, and a different browser or a different device will not see it. That is also why this page says your list stays in your browser rather than claiming nothing is saved.
Should I use this or the weekly planner?
Use this when the answer to "when" is "today, in whatever order I get to it". It is one flat list you print and tick off. Use the planner when the answer is "Tuesday at four": it is the structured one, with seven days, a time column, status tags and templates for content, meals or study. They are deliberately different tools rather than one tool with a mode, because a day’s list wants to be short and unstructured, and a week wants columns. Trying to be both would make each of them worse.
How many tasks should one list hold?
Short enough that finishing it is realistic. A list you can complete tells you something at the end of the day; a list of thirty items tells you only that you are behind, and after a few days of that people stop reading their own lists. There is no correct number here and this page is not going to invent one — the useful test is whether you look at the list and believe it. If you do not, the extra rows probably belong on tomorrow’s sheet, which is one more print.
What should I write in the Action column?
The smallest piece of information that stops you having to go and find something before you can start. A phone number, an address, the file name, the person to ask, the amount, the deadline. If a task is blocked, write what it is waiting on — that turns a row you keep skipping into a row that explains itself. It can also stay empty; a task with an obvious next move does not need a note beside it, and an empty second column prints as clean space you can write in.
What happens if my list is longer than one page?
It splits into A4 sheets here rather than being handed to the browser to break, and the preview shows you exactly where the break lands. That matters because Chrome’s print dialog carries its own Margins setting which overrides page margins written in CSS, so a browser-split list can run to the edge of the paper. Each sheet here carries its own margin as part of the content, which no print setting can strip away — and it means what you see in the preview is what comes out of the printer.
Why does it print rather than download a PDF?
Because your browser already makes better PDFs than a JavaScript library can. Choosing "Save as PDF" in the print dialog gives you a vector page with real, selectable, searchable text. A PDF library would add around 40 KB to every visit to this page and draw the text as shapes instead — nothing you could copy out of, and nothing a screen reader could read. The cost of doing it this way is one extra dialog, which for a page whose whole job is to reach a printer is not much of a cost at all.