David Allen's Getting Things Done begins with a deceptively simple premise: your brain is for having ideas, not storing them.
When you try to remember everything you need to do, your mind is constantly running a background process — rechecking, re-evaluating, worrying that you'll forget something important. This "open loop" is exhausting. It's why you remember a task you forgot at 2am.
The solution is to build a trusted external system. A place where ideas and tasks go so your mind can let them go.
In FocusThree, that place is the Backlog.
Capture Everything, Judge Nothing
The first rule of a good capture system is zero friction. When a task occurs to you, it should take one second to record it. Don't think about whether it's important. Don't organize it. Just capture it.
FocusThree's Backlog is designed for this. The input field sits at the bottom of the screen, always ready. Type the task, hit return. Done. Your brain can relax — it's been written down.
The time for judgment comes later, when you're deciding what to promote to Focus.
The Weekly Review
A capture system only works if you trust it. And you only trust it if you maintain it.
The practice that makes GTD work is the weekly review: a short session, once a week, where you look through everything you've captured and make decisions.
- Is this task still relevant? Delete it if not.
- Can I do this in the next few days? Consider promoting it.
- Is this a multi-step project that needs breaking down? Add the first concrete step.
The weekly review is when your Backlog goes from a raw dump to a curated list of real intentions.
Prioritizing With Pin to Top
Not all backlog tasks are equal. Some are time-sensitive. Some are high-leverage. Some are just noise you haven't gotten around to deleting yet.
FocusThree Pro includes a Pin to Top feature that lets you mark the tasks you want to promote next. Pinned tasks float to the top of your Backlog, so when you're choosing what to work on, the important stuff is front and center.
It's a small feature, but it closes an important loop: now you can do your weekly review, pin the things that matter this week, and then trust your system to surface them when you're ready.
Letting Go of the Backlog
Here's the counterintuitive part: a long Backlog is fine.
Many productivity systems create anxiety because they imply that every captured item must eventually be completed. That's not true. Ideas are cheap. Intentions are plentiful. Most things you capture will eventually become irrelevant, and that's okay.
The Backlog is not a list of obligations. It's a pool of possibilities. You pull from it when you have capacity — and you ignore it when your Focus list is full.
The goal is not an empty Backlog. The goal is a clear mind and three things to do today.
Ready to start capturing with less stress? Download FocusThree and give your brain a break.