Copyable replacement rule
KEEP one must-do: MOVE one maintenance task: DROP one bonus: New urgent task: The tradeoff I made:
Use the rule in five steps
Keep one must-do
Choose the outcome that matters most today. A must-do is not everything that feels important; it is the one result you are unwilling to trade away without a deliberate decision.
Move one maintenance task
Move a useful but non-urgent task to a specific later slot. “Later” is not a plan; choose a day or a review point that fits the time you actually have.
Drop one bonus
Remove an optional task instead of letting it become invisible overtime. Dropping a bonus is a capacity decision, not a character judgment.
Write down the tradeoff
Record what entered, what moved, and what left. The written tradeoff prevents the list from growing faster than your available attention.
Review the fit
At the end of the day, revise the estimate or priority if the plan did not fit. The point is to learn from capacity, not to punish yourself for having it.
Example
Keep: file the client proposal. Move: inbox cleanup to tomorrow at 10:00. Drop: researching a new project-management tool. Urgent task: answer a same-day client question. The plan still fits because one task moved and one task left.
What this method can—and cannot—do
The replacement rule is a capacity practice, not a promise that every day will feel easy. It makes tradeoffs explicit so you can respond to new work without pretending that time, attention, and energy are unlimited.
Use it alongside realistic estimates, deadlines, and regular progress review. If the same task keeps moving, that is useful information: shrink it, renegotiate it, delegate it, or decide it is no longer a priority.
Make the tradeoff visible in TodoMelon
Create the must-do, maintenance task, and bonus as separate tasks. Add priority, effort, and a realistic date; when urgency enters, move or remove one existing task. TodoMelon keeps the decision visible so you do not have to carry the whole plan in your head.