Marie Kondo Your Backlog

Facing a backlog can feel like staring up at a towering mountain of unfinished work—intimidating, endless, and heavy. That dread can freeze momentum before it even starts.

Why Sweep Weekly

Backlogs grow like weeds. Ideas multiply faster than proof. If you let the list sprawl, you will open it and feel heavy. Weekly sweeping keeps the list light. You archive what you will not touch. You tighten what remains. You set Monday up so starting feels automatic.

Review With Evidence

Begin with a quick review of the week. Look at your proof log and your three numbers. Where did momentum show up? Where did it stall? Let the evidence, not your mood, guide the broom. Archive stale tasks ruthlessly. If an item sat untouched for two weeks and you are not excited to do it, move it to a “Someday” file. You can always pull it back. You likely won’t.

The Rule of Three

Keep an active list of three. Not three categories. Three items. These are the next slices you believe will move the lever you chose for the week. Everything else lives offstage. When an urgent item appears midweek, it can swap with one of the three, but the total remains three. Constraints protect attention.

Rewrite Into Outcomes

Rewrite vague ideas into outcomes to make your next steps clear. For example:

• “Improve onboarding” becomes “Add one welcome line and the primary CTA.”
• “Polish landing” becomes “Swap headline to X and test with three DMs.”
• “Analytics” becomes “Track clicks on the main CTA and log daily.”

Outcomes make the Monday start obvious.

Stage Monday

Stage Monday now. Open the exact file for the first slice and leave a one‑line “Ship:” at the top. Create any folders or draft links you need so that Monday you double‑click and move. Draft the first ask you will send after the ship. Copy a snippet you can paste with minimal edits. The less Monday‑you needs to think, the better Monday goes.

Pick a Theme and Metric

Pick a theme and a metric for the week. One theme—discovery, activation, revenue—focuses choices. One metric—proof days, finish rate, or latency—keeps score. Write both at the top of your weekly note. When a decision pops up midweek, glance at the theme and metric. The answer gets easier.

Keep It Quick

The sweep should feel quick and satisfying. Ten to twenty minutes is enough once you get the hang of it. If it takes longer, you are debating, not sweeping. Trust that you can change next Sunday. The point is to keep the system light enough to use.

Design Your Path

As your product grows, your sweep becomes a design act. You remove pieces that no longer serve the arc and make space for experiments that match your stage. This shift—from “do everything” to “do what moves one lever”—turns your backlog from a pile into a clear path forward. We'll explore how these small, deliberate steps compound over time in the next chapter, unlocking lasting momentum and retention.