Learn Hardcore German: Auf meinem Merkzettel stehen heute nur drei Punkte, was sich gut machbar anfühlt. - On my reminder note there are only three items today, which feels manageable.

Here it is clearer that drei Punkte is the thing that stehen (stand / are listed). Because drei Punkte is plural, the verb must also be plural: stehen, not steht.

So the logical order is:

(Heute) stehen (Verb, 2nd position) nur drei Punkte (Subject) auf meinem Merkzettel (rest).

When you front Auf meinem Merkzettel, you still keep stehen in 2nd position, and the subject stays where it is:

Auf meinem Merkzettel (position 1) stehen (position 2, conjugated verb) heute nur drei Punkte (rest, including subject).

Why is it Auf meinem Merkzettel (dative) and not Auf meinen Merkzettel (accusative)?

The preposition auf can take either dative or accusative:

Dative: location (where something is)
Accusative: direction (where something is going)

Here, the sentence describes where the points are listed (location), not where something is being put:

Auf meinem Merkzettel stehen … → The points are (located) on the note. → Dative

Compare:

Ich schreibe drei Punkte auf meinen Merkzettel.
I am writing three points onto my note. → Movement towards → Accusative

So:

Auf meinem Merkzettel stehen … (dative, static location)
Auf meinen Merkzettel schreiben … (accusative, movement onto it)

Why is stehen used here instead of sein? Can I say Auf meinem Merkzettel sind heute nur drei Punkte?

German often uses stehen, liegen, hängen to talk about where written or printed things are located:

Auf der Liste stehen zehn Namen.
In der Zeitung steht ein interessanter Artikel.

In this sentence, stehen has the extended meaning “are written / are listed”.

Auf meinem Merkzettel sind heute nur drei Punkte is grammatically correct, but it sounds less idiomatic. A native speaker is much more likely to say stehen in this specific context of “on a list / note / document”.

So:

sein = neutral “to be”
stehen here = “to be written / listed / present (on a list, page, note)”

What exactly is a Merkzettel, and what gender does it have?

Merkzettel literally means “note to remember something” – a little list or reminder:

a to‑do list
a shopping list
a reminder note

Grammar details:

Article: der Merkzettel (masculine)
Dative singular: dem Merkzettel
With mein-:
- Nominative: mein Merkzettel
- Dative: meinem Merkzettel

So auf meinem Merkzettel is auf + dative masculine singular.

Why is there a comma before was sich gut machbar anfühlt?

The part was sich gut machbar anfühlt is a subordinate clause. It comments on the whole situation described before:

Main clause: Auf meinem Merkzettel stehen heute nur drei Punkte
Subordinate clause: was sich gut machbar anfühlt

In German, subordinate clauses are normally separated from the main clause by a comma.

Also, the verb of the subordinate clause (anfühlt) is sent to the end, which is another sign that it is subordinate:

…, was sich gut machbar anfühlt.
(Pronoun + reflexive pronoun + rest + verb at the end)

Why is the relative pronoun was used here, and not was das or die or welches?

Was here does not refer to a single noun. It refers to the whole previous statement:

Auf meinem Merkzettel stehen heute nur drei Punkte, was sich gut machbar anfühlt.
→ The fact that there are only three points feels manageable.

In German, when you refer back to an entire idea, situation, or clause, you typically use was:

Er ist nicht gekommen, was mich überrascht hat.
Sie hat bestanden, was mich sehr freut.

You would use der / die / das / welcher etc. if you were referring back to a specific noun:

Die drei Punkte, die auf meinem Merkzettel stehen, fühlen sich gut machbar an.

But here the speaker is not just talking about die drei Punkte as items; they are commenting on the whole fact that there are only three. Hence was.

What does sich gut machbar anfühlen literally mean, and why is sich needed?

Breakdown:

(sich) anfühlen = to feel (to the senses / subjectively), as in “This feels …”
machbar = doable, manageable
gut = well / good, here: “quite / nicely”

So es fühlt sich gut machbar an is:

Literally: “It feels itself well doable.”
Natural English: “It feels very manageable / It feels quite doable.”

The verb is reflexive: sich anfühlen. In German, many verbs are reflexive even though English uses a non‑reflexive verb:

Es fühlt sich komisch an. – It feels strange.
Das klingt komisch. – That sounds strange. (non‑reflexive)

You must include sich with anfühlen in this meaning:

Das fühlt sich gut an. ✅
Das fühlt gut an. ❌ (wrong)

What is the nuance of machbar compared to words like möglich or zu schaffen?

All three can be translated as “possible” or “doable”, but they feel different:

machbar
- very close to “doable / feasible / manageable”
- often used for tasks, workloads, plans
- gut machbar ≈ “very manageable / realistically doable”
möglich
- more neutral “possible (in principle)”
- doesn’t necessarily imply that it is easy or realistic
- Es ist möglich, aber nicht leicht.
zu schaffen / schaffbar
- focus on “can be accomplished / can be got done”
- Das ist gut zu schaffen. ≈ “That’s quite manageable.”
- schaffbar is similar to machbar, but a bit more colloquial-sounding.

In this sentence, gut machbar emphasizes that the size of today’s list feels comfortably manageable.

Why is it gut machbar and not machbar gut?

In German, when you have an adverb like gut modifying an adjective like machbar, the usual order is:

Adverb + adjective

So:

gut machbar (well doable / very manageable)
not
machbar gut

Other examples:

sehr schwierig (very difficult)
kaum verständlich (barely understandable)
völlig klar (completely clear)

Placing gut after machbar (machbar gut) would sound wrong in this context.

Is heute in a fixed position, or could I move it somewhere else in the sentence?

Heute is quite flexible. All of these are grammatical, with slight differences in emphasis:

Heute stehen auf meinem Merkzettel nur drei Punkte.
(Strong focus on “today”.)
Auf meinem Merkzettel stehen heute nur drei Punkte.
(The given version; “on my list” is the starting point, then you add “today”.)
Nur drei Punkte stehen heute auf meinem Merkzettel.
(Emphasis on “only three points”.)

The main rule you must keep:

The conjugated verb (stehen) must stay in 2nd position in the main clause.
Other elements (time, place, subject, etc.) can be reordered for focus and style.