Clear the pile
Pull out the few things that matter, archive the rest in one move, and stop it rebuilding.
The short version
- A backlog is not a stack of paper or messages. It is a stack of decisions that were each postponed once and are now sitting on top of each other.
- Declaring a cut-off and archiving everything behind it works, and it costs you the small number of real things buried in there, which is why this tool walks you through checking for them first.
- Nothing you type is saved or sent. The tool rearranges what you enter into a plan and hands it back to copy.
The move that works is to stop clearing and archive instead, in one action, without reading. What makes that safe is a single pass first, looking only for four categories of thing that must not disappear behind the line. This tool walks you through that pass, one category at a time, then hands you a dated plan: what to rescue, the exact archive action, and the five-decision rule that keeps the pile from forming again.
Before you begin
Pick the one pile you most avoid, an inbox, a corner of the desk, a folder. You will name it, walk four quick safety checks, and choose a cut-off date. Nothing you type is saved.
Questions
Step 1 of 7
Your amnesty plan
Rescue these first
Then the archive action
Copy the plan somewhere it will survive
Select the text below and copy it into whatever you already use. This page keeps nothing.
The rule that stops it rebuilding
Amnesty without a new rule buys about six weeks. From now on, every arriving item gets one of exactly five decisions, immediately: do it now if that is quicker than filing it, diary it with a date and a time, pass it on with a name attached, archive it if it is a record not a request, or bin it.
The list is short on purpose. Most of what enters a pile does so because a sixth option existed: later, undefined. Remove that option and the pile has nowhere to form. Then a short weekly pass over whatever slipped through, at the same time each week.
Worth knowing. There is no reliable research on backlogs, amnesties or inbox size, and the popular claims about email and stress are weaker than they are usually reported to be, so none are cited here. The two-minute rule behind "do it now" is a productivity heuristic from David Allen's Getting Things Done, not a research finding. Everything here is craft, widely described and worth trying, not established. The one thing to hold onto: amnesty is for noise. Anything with a person waiting needs the short, unpleasant, specific reply, which is why this tool checks for that first.
Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere. What you type exists only while this page is open.
Written for Thought Club as general guidance, not medical advice. Free to read, print, and share.