by mtlmtlmtlmtl | 2026-01-14 08:52:01+00:00
I write them down. I've been following the GTD system(using org-mode with the excellent org-gtd package). The basic concept is just that you write down things when they pop into your head. Once a day, you go through the list of stuff you wrote down and sort it into categories like "do this asap", "this is a multistep project with these individual steps that I can work on over time", "This is a habitual task that repeats on some interval. "maybe do this some day", or just discard it. I definitely get the flurry of ideas you describe. But not just ideas, mundane shit I gotta do. I'm at the store and a thought will pop into my head like I gotta clean the filter in my washing machine. Or I'm at home coding and I remember I need to buy milk. But when I'm at the store, I don't remember the milk. And when I'm at home, I don't remember the pump filter. So not only do these things not get done, they keep popping up in contexts where I can't do anything about them, and distracting me from what I'm actually trying to do.

GTD helps address that disconnect. The thought pops up, I dump it in the inbox. It is now "dealt with", asynchronously, and the thought can stop bouncing around my head. If it pops up again, I remember that I wrote it down, and let it go. Sometimes I'm not sure, so I just write it down again, no biggie if it gets duplicated.

And it also serves as a filter. So many of my ideas are just silly flights of fancy that, when I'm confronted with them even the next day, I already hate them, and just discard them.

It took me months to get used to it, and get consistent with even remembering to write stuff down. But you get better at it, and eventually you'll have less random thoughts bouncing around your head all the time. It's actually helped me be less stressed and calmed me down a bunch.

It's important to note that the system is ever evolving. It wraps in on itself. As I use the system, ideas and frustrations about the system pops up. I write them down as well, and if actionable, do something about them. So for instance, my list of "asap" tasks was getting cluttered with: groceries I need to buy, various changes to my emacs/wm/OS configuration, things that needed to get done, but were not really urgent, like "clean the shower". Obviously cleaning the shower is a good idea, but it's not like the world will end if I don't do it right this minute. This resulted in me always having more of these single tasks that I could typically finish in a day, which was distracting, because there were all these items on my agenda pulling my mind in different directions. So I herded these things into places where they make more sense. Made a shopping list and a wishlist. The shopping list gets synced to my phone and I have a widget for it via the orgzly app(which I also use as my mobile inbox). These things are not on my agenda, because whenever I'm looking at my agenda I'm not in a position to buy milk. "Config stuff" is now its own list, and I have a weekly habit item where I spend a couple hours on stuff in that list. I don't touch it otherwise and it doesn't clog up my agenda. More tedious, less urgent chores have their own list as well, and I similarly try to spend at least an hour a week on those.

Now, the block of my agenda with these "single tasks" will rarely be more than 5 tasks, most of them taking less than 10 minutes. I can easily clear it almost every day. And if I have a bad day and do nothing, the list is still manageable the next day. And ofc I made a daily habit item to that effect. That contributes to a sense of mastery, and I also get to work on the "fun stuff" without being plagued by guilt about all the other tasks I'm neglecting. Fuck yes.

Now I'm noticing another issue, that I'm getting an increasing list of these multistep projects. And I'm currently working on making a weekly review process where i prioritise projects. Ideally, I want a list of active projects with an explicit goal that I should check off at least one subtask in every active project in a week. And a procedure to manage which projects are active, not active, etc. that way I can keep my agenda free of projects that I've fallen out of love with that just sit in my agenda making me guilty.

Of course, the GTD book goes into all of this in detail. But I don't have the book. I prefer to develop this system myself, incrementally. One major issue I've had in the past with these systems is a sort of "system overwhelm", where the ADHD tendency to take things too far leads me to "commit" to adopting some ambitious, complicated system virtually overnight, and it's good for a couple days. Then I have a bad day, fail to follow it, and the ADHD propensity to see myself as a failure takes over, leading me to discard the system because I think I'm just not capable of following it. No more. Start with something dead simple, that you can do even on your shittiest days. Write some stuff down, go through it the next day. Just do that one thing. If after processing the inbox, all you can manage is to fuck off and play video games all day, fine. It's ok to have bad days. I certainly still have them. But even people with ADHD can develop habits. We're just bad at the initial phase ehere the habit isn't automatic yet. So make it at simole as possible at first, and then build on it slowly over time is my main advice.