How do you handle long term ToDo items? Things like « Thinking about future life projects », which is more of a background task than an actual item to « do » in the moment per se.

I keep my Todo list divided in five pages in my notebook and I look into these whenever I plan my Todo for the upcoming day. It's divided like this: 1. Scheduled tasks (health appointments, family meetings, anything with a date… I prefer to have them in one place rather than scattered across the diary) – 2. Weekly routine tasks (packing and unpacking swimming stuff, cooking Sunday family lunch, daily cleaning, anything you do every week on the same day, so you don't have to keep it on mind) – 3. Must todos (not doing these will bring a lot of complications) – 4. Should todos (skipping these is not ideal but can be advantageous in some cases, in exchange for something with higher priority) – 5. Could todos (anything else, including ideas to think about later – this is an infinite lifetime list).
When I organise my day, I usually plan and execute my tasks in this order: Must Today – Must Someday – Should Today – Should Someday – Coulds. Future life projects tend to end up in Should and Could Todo lists, depending on how important I find them for my overall life happiness. Thinking of them is actually an active task, because I like to plan everything with paper and pencil while creating specific Todo lists for a certain project. When you decompose your ideas into tasks, it's easier to schedule them.
Good luck 🙂

For long term items I use Jack Canfield and Steven Covey Principles and break it down. In order to accomplish that long term item/go what must I need done in one year, six months, three months, sixty days, one month, three weeks, two weeks, one week, today? I put each task for each time above on my calendar so it gets done and stay on task for each time slot. It has always worked for me.
Obviously for immediate tasks, I put them on todays to do list.

I find these things are best pondered and explored little and often and then acted on when more concrete plans come to light. Making sure you take time off active-doing, makes time for this more passive mode of decision making e.g. going for a walk… or at the very least sitting on the train/a bench/waiting… (& not looking at your phone) then noting answers important realizations and exploring them in detail when journaling.

I always like to write down in order what house projects or house chores to do first.
Gives me an idea of what to save for or mentally what to prepare for.

Start a “Future Journal” and write in it every day. You could have a section for planning future projects (e.g. sewing, woodworking, gardening etc), a section for financial planning and a few pages in the back to just let your thoughts flow unhindered.
Build yourself up by writing yourself down.

I write them down and if I have the time I will think about it or do it. I think it’s good to write them down so you don’t forget about it

I’ve been through this right now. What I’m doing is handle it with patience, passion, hope and welling to achieve it like picturing my self standing in my favorite place and the feeling of relaxation and happiness cz finally i did it and I breath it. Of course we’re not forget the hard work but what makes me keep going is all the things I mentioned up .

I like to work on short term things to do that work towards long term plans. I do things to do lists and plough through giving myself deadlines where necessary.

I would like to say I tackle my personal projects by just jumping in but I can't. I break up what I envision into tactical parts and from there work on any skills I need to learn. I would say brainstorming and coming UP with the ideas can be a background task, while any research, practice, or networking falls into the active “To-Do” category.

Very true although, what if you did carve out a time where you could think, ponder, or even meditate on future plans. It can be a background task most of the time, but it can also be a set time where you can zone in and focus on focusing on the future. It could be more than one session. Just call it sit and think maybe.

I over analyse everything so I quite often am thinking 20 steps ahead so I’m not caught by surprise. Long term goal either motivate me or totally shut me down because it’s stressful. Depends on my headspace at the time.

Before I was thinking of them too much and that was the reason of my anxiety and depression, I was overthinking, now I do that way less I just follow my gut feeling and see where that takes me , so basically I don’t plan much

I put them in a goals list and put deadlines next to them so that I know that I'm still working towards a goal that has an end point. Every now and then I revisit that list. Sometimes if that list requires specific things, they'll be things that I can add to my general to do list so that slowly, over time, I'm getting closer to achieving that goal

Long term to-do items are things to /observe/ in the moment. You handle them in order when you begin to prioritize your to-do items. It’s always good to brainstorm “thinking about future life projects” as part of your routine. That specific thing seems like a big to-do. Break it up in to a small task that is scattered throughout the week so you will reach your goal(s) eventually.