The person who maintains a Notion second brain, a Todoist GTD setup, and a calendar blocked to the quarter hour isn't more productive, many are trying to externalize a mind that learned, somewhere along the way, that forgetting anything was a kind of failure

A stressed businesswoman reviewing documents at her desk, overwhelmed by paperwork.

Open someone's laptop on a Tuesday evening and you can sometimes catch the ritual. A tab for Notion, a tab for Todoist, the calendar app pinned. They are not doing work, exactly. They are tidyin...