I mostly endorse this, but as I recently wrote in reply to something else [1], I also have found great value in writing things down to get them out of my head.

I mostly endorse this, but as I recently wrote in reply to something else [1], I also have found great value in writing things down to get them out of my head. In that case I was more talking about blog-post type things, but it includes notes for work and such. So what I sometimes do is a hybrid model: I take the notes, thus satisfying my brain that the thing is no longer something it needs to chew on... and then basically discard the notes. Not quite literally, I don't literally chuck them in the trash. I might keep them around for a while in case I do need something out of them. But they don't contribute to my "to do" list, metaphorical or literal, much at all. Yes. Every once in a long while, something falls through the cracks that I should have picked up. But the reality is that for me, YMMV, this approach is a huge net positive. I am able to constantly re-evaluate what's important right now without a lot of mental baggage, and usually, when I'm in the moment deciding what's important in this moment, I'm vastly more accurate in my assessment than I would have been trying to prognosticate a month ago. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32984424 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32984424