The Done List Method Works: I Wrote It as Done, Then I Took Apart the Wardrobes

The Done List Method works, and I honestly can’t put into words how good it feels. There’s a very particular kind of satisfaction in looking at a note you wrote in the past tense, before anything had happened, and seeing that it actually came true.

Yesterday I opened my Done List and read a line I’d written days earlier: “I took out all the wardrobes.”

The Wardrobes

We rent our home, and the landlord’s wardrobes had been bothering me for a long time. They looked like they’d spent decades in a barn. Heavy, dated, and absolutely not the feeling I wanted in our space. I wanted the place to feel like ours: fresh, calm, smelling like wild cherry.

So I wrote it down as already done. And then I did it. I took apart those two-metre monsters piece by piece and carried them down to the basement.

Now I’m sitting in a clean, fresh-smelling living room, writing this post with real pleasure. That feeling of space, quiet, and “I did that” is why I keep coming back to this method.

Why My Done List Makes Me So Grateful Right Now

I’m grateful for the peace and happiness that spreads from me to my husband and our kids. I’m grateful to the universe for giving me, day by day, so much of what I ask for. I’m grateful for the Done List Method itself, which I’ve watched come to life, and with which I’ve mainly proven something to myself: how much is possible, and how wonderful life can be when you stop treating it as a list of things you still owe.

I’m grateful for every book I’ve read along the way, too. Several of them shaped this method, and you can see how in The Original Done List Method and in Done List, Neville Goddard & Manifestation.

How the Done List Method works (it’s simple)

There’s nothing complicated here. You take something you still need to do and write it in the past tense, before it happens:

• I took out the wardrobes.
• I sent the email.
• I renovated kitchen

Then you go and do it. A normal to-do list keeps every unfinished task open in your mind. This lines up with a well-documented pattern in psychology called the Zeigarnik Effect: unfinished tasks tend to stay on the mind more than finished ones. Writing the task as already done quiets some of that pull. Part of what makes it work for me may also be expectation, the same family of effects as the placebo effect. I’m not claiming magic. I’m saying it changed how my days feel, and the wardrobes are out.

Don’t Avoid What You Love

Here’s the other thing I want to say. Don’t avoid what you love. Try to do it every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes, like I did with this post. It really can be that simple.

I’m writing this for the people who understand manifestation, who know a little about the placebo effect and the Zeigarnik effect, who can’t stand to-do lists, and for all the moms looking for a way to organise everything without feeling worn out and hopeless. I trust this will find its way to you.

If you’d like to try it with a guided structure, the Signature Collection planners are built entirely around this method.

I’m here for all of you. If you have questions, fire away in the comments. 🤍

Does the Done List Method work for everyone? I can only tell you what happened in my living room. The Done List Method works when you write tomorrow as done and then follow through, and that day it worked for me. Try it tonight: write one line about tomorrow in the past tense, then go and do it.

If you want to try this yourself, open your Done List tonight and write one line about tomorrow in the past tense, as if it already happened. Then go and do it, and notice how it feels when the page matches your day.