
Getting Things Done / adults / Plan
Finish / Shrink / Schedule / Release
Triage the pile of things you never finished.
What this is for
You've got a backlog of unfinished tasks sitting in the background, quietly draining attention.
When to use it
When you look at your list of half-started things and feel weighed down rather than motivated.
What you leave with
Every item in the pile sorted into one of four honest categories, with next actions for each.
1 / 2
List what's sitting in your unfinished pile.
Projects, admin, emails, hobbies — anything half-started.
Pick one to keep going.
Why this can help
Unfinished tasks stay mentally 'open' and consume background attention (the Zeigarnik effect). Explicitly deciding a task's fate — even to abandon it — closes that loop and frees up working memory.
Zeigarnik effect research