Information Decay
Handling Tasks, Notes, and Bookmarks That Lose Relevance Over Time
You capture everything: tasks, notes, bookmarks, articles to read later. At first, it feels like building a second brain. But over time, that brain starts to rot. What was once valuable information slowly decays, becoming clutter instead of clarity.
This is the problem of information decay: when the resources you store lose relevance, accuracy, or usefulness. If left unchecked, the pile grows — and instead of making you more productive, it drags you down.
Why Information Decay Happens
Information ages. Tasks that mattered last week are irrelevant today. Bookmarks pile up without being revisited. Notes that made sense in the moment lose context.
This isn’t laziness — it’s human. We collect more than we can process. Just like in tool sprawl, the abundance of inputs creates clutter instead of clarity.
The result? A system that feels heavy, outdated, and unreliable. When your backlog is bloated, you stop trusting it.
The Hidden Cost of Decayed Information
Information decay comes with hidden costs:
- Decision fatigue: scrolling through irrelevant items to find what matters.
- Lost trust: when tasks or notes are outdated, you stop believing your system.
- Mental friction: like version fatigue, constantly checking if something is still relevant wastes energy.
In my own workflow, I’ve noticed bookmarks are the worst offenders. Saving an article feels useful, but weeks later, I don’t even remember why I saved it. The act of storing gave me a false sense of progress.
Signs Your System Is Decaying
- Your task list feels overwhelming even after you finish key work.
- Notes take longer to parse than to recreate.
- Bookmarks sit untouched for months.
- You spend more time curating than doing — like the time tracking paradox, where managing the system eats the very resource you wanted to protect.
Strategies to Combat Information Decay
1. Build expiry dates.
Not everything deserves to live forever. Set notes, bookmarks, or tasks to auto-expire after a set period unless you renew them.
2. Shrink the backlog.
Do regular sweeps: archive old tasks, delete stale bookmarks, and collapse old notes. This keeps your active system lean.
3. Focus on active context.
Instead of capturing everything, capture only what connects to current projects. This aligns with burnout-proof workflows — keeping focus on what matters most.
4. Summarize instead of hoarding.
Write short takeaways from articles instead of saving the whole piece. That way, even if you never revisit the link, the value is stored in your words.
Final Thoughts
Information decay is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to ruin your system. By pruning, summarizing, and letting go of outdated inputs, you keep your workflow clean and trustworthy.
Your second brain doesn’t have to be a perfect archive — it just needs to be a reliable guide for the present. Because in the end, productivity isn’t about storing everything. It’s about knowing what’s worth keeping today.