Something to doWorkload & wellbeing
Keep a done list
A micro habit for seeing the progress you actually made
Why it’s worth your time
Small progress you can see tends to steady you more than big progress you can't. A to-do list only shows what's unfinished, so it never looks done, however good the day was. Writing down what moved gives you the other half of the picture in about five minutes.
How to keep a done list
You’ll come away with a few lines each day that show what actually moved.
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
- Tie it to the end of your day.
Closing the laptop, the commute, the last coffee. Pick something that already marks the end of work and do it right before.
- Write down what you got done.
Three to five lines. Include the unplanned: the problem you solved for someone, the message that unstuck a project, the decision that finally got made.
Tip: Progress counts, not only completion. “Got the first half drafted” is a real line.
- Star the one that mattered most.
Just one per day. Over a week, the stars show what your days are really going toward.
- Read the week back on Friday.
Two minutes, five days of lines. Notice what moved, and what you'd like more of next week.
MonTueWedThuFri9 am11 am1 pm3 pm5 min, yours5 pm0.3 hrs a month, for you4 hrs a year you didn’t have beforeSame slot so it stops being a decision
Good moments for this: at the end of every workdayon a day that felt like nothing happenedat the end of the week, reading it back
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
Keep going with Truest
Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensDo it now, and you’ve invested in your career today.
- Part of the check-inThe end-of-day text asks for two scores and a line; this fits in it.
- It’s yours to keepEach thing you do is saved to your private record, there when your next review or job search comes around.
Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Helping a colleague, fixing something nobody noticed was broken, a hard conversation handled well. These rarely make a to-do list, and they're often what keeps a team running.
What might make this harder
Look through your sent messages and your calendar; progress hides in replies and meetings. On a genuinely stalled day, write what you learned about why it stalled.
Questions people ask
What is a done list?
A list of what you actually got done, written at the end of the day. Where a to-do list shows what's left, a done list shows what moved.
Why does my to-do list make me feel worse?
Because it only ever shows what's unfinished. Pairing it with a list of what you did gives you a truer picture of the day.
What is the progress principle?
An idea from Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer's research on people's working days: of the things that make a workday feel good, making progress on meaningful work, even small progress, matters most.
Should I write down small accomplishments at work?
Usually, yes. Small wins are the first things you forget, and they're often most of what moved.
Why this works, and where it comes from
The end of a workday usually comes with a look at what's left. The list is still long, the inbox still full, and it's easy to decide the day didn't amount to much. On a day of small, real progress, a to-do list looks exactly like a day of none. It was never built to show you how far you came.
Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer looked closely at this for their book The Progress Principle, studying daily diaries kept by people at work. They found that of all the things that shape how a workday feels, making progress on work that matters is the most powerful, and that small wins count for more than people expect. Setbacks weighed heavily too. A done list is a simple way to make sure the progress gets noticed, since most of it otherwise passes without comment.
There's a quieter benefit as well. Confidence tends to follow clarity: the better you can see what you've done, the easier it is to trust what you'll do next. And a few weeks of lines turn out to be a surprisingly good memory when someone asks what you've been working on, or when review season comes and the months have blurred.
It won't help much if the real problem is that none of the work feels like it matters. A done list shows progress; it can't give meaning to work that's lost its point for you. If your lines keep reading like someone else's job, take that seriously, and start by asking what you'd want more of in your work.
Other simple things to consider
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Written by Truest, based on The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work (Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer). Last updated September 25, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.