Any productivity application that lets me create a to do list the day before?

Notion could help. But it is a bit of work to understand how it functions.

it does let you do that. op just doesn't know how to use it

Yes paper and pen helps me , especially since my ‘work’ to do’s are all computer based

I use MS ToDo as well. What I do is allocate tasks due on specific days, then at the end of every day I use the "Planned" view and allocate time blocks in my calendar for all the tasks I have due tomorrow.

I do plain old time blocking in my calendar. Helps keep me honest about what’s reasonable to accomplish. Also good old pen and paper .

Todoist would do that, even the free version I think. I can schedule tasks for any upcoming dates and they can have sub tasks. It seems odd that Microsoft To Do won't let you do that...

Dang I feel old reading these comments, I just use the reminder app on iPhone! It’s simple, straight forward and works for me. Before when I had a Samsung I used ColorNote! Also free

I’ve tried all the major task management apps but I’ve stuck with Amazing Marvin for the last 2-3 years. Might be worth checking out. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. There are “planning” strategies you could enable which would allow you to do what you’re wanting.

things by cultured code is great! simple interface, lets you drag and drop items to prioritize, intuitive keyboard shortcuts

I used to do a version of this in Outlook (classic, on desktop). In general, I'd use the task feature and assign a due date. Then at the end of each workday, I'd look at the tasks for the following day and make adjustments, prioritize, add, etc.

If you have iOS Finalist is probably what you want. Or you could make a calendar named “Tasks” and just put them in as calendar events on the next day. Seems you want an app that assigns tasks to a day rather than days to a task in a way

Todoist will do that (even the free tier). Your recurring routine stuff will self-schedule Specific tasks you want to set up for the next day, you can just add. By default, the task title will schedule based on what you type - notably, "tom" does it for "tomorrow". When Trello was my go-to for daily activities, I'd run a python script I wrote that generates a new list for the next day. Each day list had a "TODO" card (checklists for this day), and a "Tomorrow" card (checklist for tomorrow tasks, which my script picked up and used to generate the next day, along with any recurring routine stuff I had configured). Todoist kind of automates that process for me by design.

Microsoft Word

Notes app on your phone.

Noteplan does this well I used it a long time in this way plus a few other nifty tricks, it’s really a great app but doesn’t come cheap. Reflect notes is basically a solid clone of it with more ai. Omnifocus was decent for this too.

You can create to do's for the next day on Microsoft to do. Just put tomorrow's date on each to do. On Android you can look at your to do's for tomorrow by going to the "planned" list. Tap on it, then tap on the menu below it and choose "tomorrow".

Most planner apps allow you to create a to do list for a future date. E.g. Structured, Do Everything, etc.

you can create a to do list the day before with most apps that let you schedule tasks, just set the due date to the next day.