This is _exactly_ why I stopped keeping TODO lists, and started keeping DONE lists instead.
What's a done list? Think of it as an anti-TODO list: your DONE list is where you write down everything that you've, well, done. You know that little dopamine kick you get from filing a neatly-tagged TODO or marking off something that you've finished? A done list is just that, and the only way to use it is to train yourself to stop organising and just...get stuff done.
I love it so much I built my own done list app: https://donel.ist . It's 100% free, and there's even an API to play around with if that's your thing.
TODO lists don't work for me at all. I can't seem to remember to actually check the damn things for what to do next. The overhead of maintaining them also eats up time.
The closest thing I've found that works to motivate and keep me on track is SaveMyTime, which is a time tracking app. I used it in a similar manner to how you describe done lists. I tracked exactly what I've done, every minute of every day. The killer feature of SMT is that it forces you to fill out what you've done prior to unlocking your phone screen. Unlike TODO lists, I have no problem checking my phone frequently :)
This meant that I always had a log of where my time was going, what areas of my life needed more attention, where I was spending my time when procrastinating, etc.
The very action of seeing that "What did you do in the last 15 minutes?" reminder helps kick my brain into "That's a good question, what should I be doing now?" mode.
Unfortunately I've since switched to iOS so SMT isn't an option anymore. I can't seem to find a similar app. Most of the existing time tracking apps expect you to actually set timers, which defeats the purpose. Damn Apple and their OS restrictions mean that no one can make an app that lets you show a screen like that prior to unlocking either.
I've settled for writing my own, private app as a replacement. It shows a widget on the home screen (as in-your-face as you can get on iPhones) with the same features as SMT. "X many minutes since you last logged your time, here is a list of likely things you were working on".
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but this method is the only thing I've been able to stick with for more than a few days.
I have so many things I both have to do and want to do that keeping a written list of them is pointless and demotivating. Only time-sensitive things get written down, and that's just so I don't forget them before it's too late.
The beauty of this is that it doesn't need an app, just a notebook or text editor.
Interesting to see this exists, I wrote a similar thing for myself which acts like a personal diary. As well as helping with reflection, it's really useful come performance review time. Answering "what did I do this past (year/X months)" becomes just reading the entries you've logged.
Much easier than reading git history, and trying to remember other items that aren't in source control.
What's a done list? Think of it as an anti-TODO list: your DONE list is where you write down everything that you've, well, done. You know that little dopamine kick you get from filing a neatly-tagged TODO or marking off something that you've finished? A done list is just that, and the only way to use it is to train yourself to stop organising and just...get stuff done.
I love it so much I built my own done list app: https://donel.ist . It's 100% free, and there's even an API to play around with if that's your thing.